Explaining research design with the theoretical framework in applied business research

When using the agile literature review approach  (ALRA) , the researcher draws a theoretical framework at level 0. This is illustrated in the following diagram:

Diagram 1

Referring to Diagram 1, the theoretical framework expresses the researcher's intellectual response to the management concerns of a client system (which are captured in the form of a management-concerns diagram). The theoretical framework comprises a set related of theoretical concepts that are to be employed to comprehend, evaluate, explain, predict and, subsequently, to make well-informed recommendations to address the management concerns as identified in the management-concerns diagram. In order to guide the researcher's literature review efforts, the components of the theoretical framework are expressed in academic jargon. The academic key words used in the theoretical framework are to be used by the researcher to do literature search and literature review. It should also be pointed out that, to provide a sharper research focus, the researcher identifies 1 to 2 components in Diagram 1 as making up the core-focus domain, leaving the other components as belonging to the non-core focus domain. The decision by the researcher on where to draw the boundary of the core-focus domain is based on the researcher's evaluation on his/her own intellectual interest as well as on his/her view of the problem-situation facing the client system, including resource and feasibility constraints on research work to be done. Nevertheless, the overall theoretical framework constructed by the researcher should exhibit an overall conceptual cohesiveness and holistic property.

After the construction of the level 0 theoretical framework (re: Diagram 1), the researcher conducts literature review and populate the level 0 components (1-5) with academic ideas. This leads to the construction of individual level 1 diagrams for each of the level 0 components (re: Diagram 1). As a result, the researcher could produce a comprehensive level 1 diagram to locate all the research methods to be employed in his/her research project. This is illustrated in Diagram 2.

Diagram 2

Diagram 2 is the same as Diagram 1, except that each component now includes a few academic ideas selected by the researcher via literature review. The academic ideas and their sources from specific academic references could be stored in separate documents, e.g., as study notes.

With Diagram 2, the researcher is committed to employing (i) the covered ideas (i.e., academic ideas) as well as (ii) the linkages between these ideas in his/ her mapped research methods. For example, for research method 1, the chosen ideas are those from components 2 and 3 while, for research method 3, the chosen ideas are from components 1 and 2. By doing so, the researcher is able to subsequently make use of these chosen academic ideas to analyze the primary data from the respective research methods. For example, for research method 4, the researcher will employ ideas 4.1 to 4.3 to examine the data collected with research method 4. These research methods could be unstructured interview, questionnaire survey, field observation and focused group interview, etc.

Referring to Diagram 1, since components 1 and 2 constitute the core-focus domain of the theoretical framework, the researcher is expected much more research efforts on them than those in the non-core-focus domain. Also, in analyzing primary data, the researcher will not only evaluate contents associated with specific academic ideas (e.g., ideas 1.1, 1,2, etc... but also the linkages between specific ideas, e.g., linkage between idea 1.1 and idea 2.2, and linkage between idea 4.1 and idea 1.2).