Suppliers involvement in new product development Essay

Suppliers involvement in new product development - Essay Example There are a number of reasons that informed the selection of qualitative research method. Most of these are directly linked to the strengths of qualitative research as identified in literature. One such reason is the fact that qualitative research ensures the collection of in-depth data, allowing that the problem or issue understand is better understood (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2003). What is more, the qualitative research ensures that data collected are based on participants’ personal categorisation of meaning (Kasim, Alexander & Hudson, 2010). This way, the interpretation of findings is always directly linked to the subjective involved in the study rather than making speculative conclusions. With the proposed study, using a qualitative research method will ensure that stakeholders who are directly involved in the research problem which include suppliers and project managers are the ones whose meaning and ideas count in the data that will be collected. A research of this nature interplays with both the use of available knowledge, as well as the creation of new set of knowledge. It is on this basis that the research philosophy is defined as the researcher’s perception of the way knowledge is constructed (Cooper, 2008). From a philosophical framework, three major research philosophies can be identified which are positivism, realism, and interpretivism. Of these, the researcher proposes to use the interpretivism research philosophy. To use interpretivism, the researcher takes a philosophical position that knowledge is a complex phenomenon which cannot be generalised in a value-free and detached manner (Diriwà ¤chter & Valsiner, 2006). As a result of this, the researcher engages in a series of complex exploration of the given topic by applying critical interpretations to data collected until a conclusion is gradually established. Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2003) saw a very direct relation between interpretivism and qualita tive research