ABSTRACT
Good research design reflects the important relationship between theory and method (Morgan and Smircich 1980). The theoretical basis of the research is the resource-based view of the firm, which has a strongly economic orientation, and the research design ought to reflect these theoretical origins. Its ontological assumptions are that the world is a real, external and objective phenomenon but also that it is an evolving process, creating opportunities for those with the appropriate ability to mould and exploit relationships in accordance with their interests. The design sought to reflect both the rationality of classical economics as well as to incorporate the voluntarism and choice inherent in the RBV. From an epistemological perspective, this implies a positivist stance with an emphasis on the empirical analysis of concrete relationships in an external social world (Burrell and Morgan 1979). The design was classically positivist, testing theoretically grounded hypotheses via a cross-sectional study of a representative sample (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Lowe 1991). But, given that the assumption of total objectivity is relaxed in the resource-based view, this positivist approach is supplemented with some additional research, including depth interviews and historical analysis.
