Helping Business Schools Engage with Real Problems: The Contribution of Critical Realism and Systems Thinking

The world faces major problems, not least climate change and the financial crisis, and business schools have been criticised for their failure to help address these issues and, in the case of the financial meltdown, for being causally implicated in it. In this paper we begin by describing the extent of what has been called the rigour/relevance debate. We then diagnose the nature of the problem in terms of historical, structural and contextual mechanisms that initiated and now sustain an inability of business schools to engage with real-world issues. We then propose a combination of measures, which mutually reinforce each other, that are necessary to break into this vicious circle – critical realism as an underpinning philosophy that supports and embodies the next points; holism and transdisciplinarity; multimethodology (mixed-methods research); and a critical and ethical-committed stance. OR and management science have much to contribute in terms of both powerful analytical methods and problem structuring methods

Blurring the boundaries between synthesis and evaluation. A customized realist evaluative synthesis into adolescent risk behavior prevention

Realist methodologies have been increasingly advocated for the investigation of complex social issues. Public health programs, such as those designed to prevent adolescent risk behavior, are typically considered complex. In conducting a realist review of the empirical literature relating to such programs, we encountered several challenges, including (a) an overabundance of empirical evidence, (b) a problematic level of heterogeneity within and between methodological approaches, (c) discrepancies between theoretical underpinnings and program operationalization, (d) homogeneity of program outcomes, with very little variation in program effectiveness, and (d) a paucity of description relating to content and process. To overcome these challenges, we developed a customized approach to realist evidence synthesis, drawing on the VICTORE (Volition, Implementation, Contexts, Time, Outcomes, Rivalry, and Emergence) complexity checklist and incorporating stakeholder engagement as primary data to achieve greater depth of understanding relating to contextual and mechanistic factors, and the complex interactions between them. Here we discuss the benefits of this adapted methodology alongside an overview of the research through which the methodology was developed. A key finding from this research was that combining the complexity checklist with primary data from stakeholder engagement enabled us to systematically interrogate the data across data sources, uncovering and evidencing mechanisms which may otherwise have remained hidden, giving greater ontological depth to our research findings. This paper builds on key methodological developments in realist research, demonstrating how realist methodologies can be customized to overcome challenges in developing and refining program theory from the literature, and contributes to the broader literature of innovative approaches to realist research

Understanding Opportunities in Social Entrepreneurship: A Critical Realist Abstraction

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.This paper extends social entrepreneurship (SE) research by drawing upon a critical realist perspective to analyse dynamic structure/agency relations in SE opportunity emergence, illustrated by empirical evidence. Our findings demonstrate an agential aspect (opportunity actualisation following a path-dependent seeding-growing-shaping process) and a structural aspect (institutional, cognitive and embedded structures necessary for SE opportunity emergence) related to SE opportunities. These structures provide three boundary conditions for SE agency: institutional discrimination, an SE belief system and social feasibility. Within this paper, we develop a novel theoretical framework to analyse SE opportunities plus, an applicable tool to advance related empirical research

Critical Realism and Empirical Research Methods in Education

In the light of recent writings of Richard Pring, and in relation to the application of empirical research methods in education, this paper offers a corrective to a neo-realist viewpoint and develops a critical realist perspective. The argument is made that the deployment of empirical research methods needs to be underpinned by a meta-theory embracing epistemological and ontological elements; that this meta-theory does not commit one to the view that absolute knowledge of the social world is possible; and that critical realism is the most appropriate meta-theory to underpin the use of empirical research methods. Further to this, unhelpful dualisms between quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and between structure and agency, are discussed in relation to neo-realist and critical realist perspectives

Fundamental concepts in management research and ensuring research quality : focusing on case study method

This paper discusses fundamental concepts in management research and ensuring research quality. It was presented at the European Academy of Management annual conference in 2008

Critical Realm-Based Explanatory Case Study Research in Information Systems

Critical realism has been proposed as an alternative philosophical paradigm to positivism and interpretivism, but few papers have offered guidelines or suggestions for applying this philosophy to actual research methodologies. This article proposes a set of methodological principles for conducting and evaluating critical realism-based explanatory case study research within the information systems (IS) field. The principles are consistent with the ontological and epistemological assumptions of critical realism, which are discussed along with a brief comparison to the contrasting assumptions from positivism and interpretivism. Examples from published case study articles in the IS research literature are discussed in order to demonstrate each principle in more detail

Qualitative Critical Realism in Information Systems Research

Currently, undertaking qualitative multi-disciplinary studies in Information Systems (IS) domain has been increased. Accordingly, the congruence between research philosophy and methodology allows the IS researchers to identify the overall strategy of the study and avoid unnecessary efforts. Consequently, application of innovative research philosophies, such as critical realism, which benefits from ideas of multiple philosophies (e.g. positivism and interpretivism) is reflected to be more to meet the requirements of multi-disciplinary IS researches. Critical realism allows the use of a well-developed and well-structured path to the research through identifying core elements including mechanisms, structures, and events. This research attempts to provide a distinctive approach for unification of critical realism philosophy and qualitative research through a literature analysis and according to the supplies of qualitative approach and the idea of fishbone diagram. It also offers a novel strategy for the validation of qualitative research based on the qualitative validity criteria and the requirements of the empirical stratum of critical realism philosoph

Meta-evaluation of the impacts and legacy of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games : Developing methods paper

This report brings together the interim findings from the Developing Meta-Evaluation Methods study, which is being undertaken in conjunction with the Meta-Evaluation of the Impacts and Legacy of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. The work on methods is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The aim of this paper is to review the existing evidence on conducting meta-evaluation, and provide guidance appropriate to the Meta Evaluation of the Games as well as other meta-evaluation studies