Lecture note on research types and their preferred research philosophies

Lecture note on research types and their preferred research philosophies 

Do different research types (i.e. descriptive, exploratory, causal and evaluation) tend to work better with a particular research philosophy (i.e. positivism, interpretivism, pragmatism and critical realism) in the context of doing a 4-month part-time MBA dissertation project?

Yes—there is a general fit, but it is not a strict one-to-one rule. For a 4-month part-time MBA dissertation, the clearest pattern is: descriptive research often fits positivism, exploratory research often fits interpretivism or pragmatism, causal research often fits positivism or critical realism, and evaluation research often fits pragmatism or critical realism.

Best-fit patterns

·        Descriptive research usually sits well with positivism because it is about measuring and summarizing “what is happening” through observable, structured data such as surveys or secondary statistics.

·        Exploratory research often fits interpretivism because it aims to discover meanings, generate ideas, and understand context through qualitative inquiry.

·        Causal research tends to fit positivism when you want to test variable relationships statistically, but critical realism can be a better philosophical home if you want to explain underlying mechanisms rather than just correlations.

·        Evaluation research often fits pragmatism because MBA projects usually need actionable findings, but critical realism is also strong when the evaluation needs to explain why an intervention worked or did not work.

Practical MBA fit

For a 4-month part-time MBA dissertation, pragmatism is often the safest default because it lets you choose methods based on what answers the business question most efficiently, including mixed methods if needed. That said, if your project is tightly quantitative and mainly descriptive or causal, positivism is usually easier to justify and faster to execute. If your project is about a complex organisational or policy issue and you need both measurable outcomes and deeper explanation, critical realism can be very persuasive.

Simple matching guide

Research type	Often fits best		Why
Research type		Often fits best		Why
Descriptive		Positivism		Measures patterns, frequency, and status using structured data
Exploratory		Interpretivism or pragmatism		Seeks insight, meaning, and flexibility when the problem is not well defined
Causal		Positivism or critical realism		Tests relationships; critical realism adds explanation of mechanisms
Evaluation		Pragmatism or critical realism		Focuses on usefulness, outcomes, and “what worked, why, and under what conditions”

Dissertation strategy

If your time is limited to 4 months, the safest design is usually to keep the philosophy aligned with the simplest defensible method set. In practice, that means a survey-based descriptive or causal project can be framed in positivist terms, while an interview-plus-documents or mixed-method evaluation project is often better framed pragmatically. If your supervisor expects deeper explanation of organisational outcomes, critical realism can strengthen the logic without forcing you into a purely quantitative or purely qualitative box.

** A collection of lecture notes on the subject of research methods for MBA students, 2026 June

A collection of blog notes on using chatgpt for research purpose.