From significant difference to significant sameness: Proposing a paradigm shift in business research

Raymond Hubbard and R. Murray Lindsay

Journal of Business Research, 2013, vol. 66, issue 9, 1377-1388

Abstract: Complaints about the value of academic business research in addressing real world issues are common. A change in research paradigms—from significant difference to significant sameness—is necessary to improve this situation. The present paper challenges research orthodoxy as representing poor scientific practice and advocates an entirely different paradigm based on a sophisticated replication tradition following a meta-methodology of critical realism. A comprehensive analysis across philosophical, methodological, and statistical literatures develops this argument.

Keywords: Abductive inference; Critical realism; Hypothetico-deductive inference; (Overlapping) confidence intervals; p-Values; Replication research; Theory development; Theory testing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:66:y:2013:i:9:p:1377-1388

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.05.002

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