Ontological underpinnings in business and management research

Abstract

Management research is social science, which means that it is subject to the same philosophy of science discussions that concern all research scrutinizing social phenomena. This article outlines six ontological questions and their answer options to highlight the relevance of acknowledging the diverse knowledge and understanding creation foundations from which such research can be conducted. In addition to integrating and distilling wide-ranging philosophy of science discussions into the aforementioned questions and answer options, this educational essay makes two additional contributions: it highlights the problems that emerge from philosophically misaligned research and argues against reproducing the strawmen of ‘realist’ and ‘constructionist’ that result from believing in the fictional continuum between objectivist and subjectivist approaches to science.