Research Methodologies and the use of accounting information

Solution Preview

1. Compare and contrast the deductive, inductive and pragmatic research methods.

Deductive research method is a top down research method where the research method works from the general to more specific details. This implies that this type of research method would start from thinking up a theory, then narrow down to more specific hypothesis, and then it can be narrowed down even further where specific observations are analyzed to address the hypothesis, and then finally test the specific data with the hypotheses to determine and confirm the validity of the theory. Inductive research method on other hand is a bottom up research method where the research works from the specifics to the general. In this method, specific measures and observations are noted which forms and detect irregularities and patterns, thereby developing some hypotheses that can be analyzed and explored and finally develop theories about the observed patterns. Pragmatic research method is a re mixed research method where both deductive and inductive research methods are used to conduct research, make findings and complement and corroborate the findings of a research (Burney, 2011; Trochim, 2006).

This implies that already accepted principles, rules and laws in accounting are often used for deductive reasoning while various observations in accounting procedures or during auditing are used for inductive reasoning. Pragmatic reasoning uses both these two to be able to complement and corroborate the various findings that are made (Chapter, 2010).

The deductive research method is often used for predicting, explaining or describing a phenomenon and uses quantitative data to arrive at its findings. The findings of a deductive research method are statistical and are used mainly to generalize the findings. It is more outcome-oriented with a special focus on causation and relationship between variables, and maintains objectivity in its conclusions. The inductive research method on the other hand is often used for exploration and description and is primarily based on qualitative data which are often evaluated ...