Methodological implications of critical realism for entrepreneurship research

Abstract

Few papers have offered clear guidance for the application of CR to empirical studies, particularly in the research field of entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to critically review how the methodological principles used to conduct CR-based research can be applied in empirical studies and to develop a critical realist case study research design to guide empirical work in entrepreneurship. Specifically, I examine the core ontological assumptions and methodological implications of CR, and illustrate how these shape our logic of inference in research methodology known as retroduction. I demonstrate the value of a CR-informed approach in empirical studies by drawing on a qualitative case study that explains the reality of entrepreneurial opportunities. My inclusion of the three domains of reality and various data analysis techniques within the process of conceptual abstraction and retroduction contributes a distinctive methodological development in this field, which illustrates how CR can work in an applied setting to explain competing theories. I argue that such a research design enables us to conduct empirical studies and provide comprehensive causal explanations of complex social events.

Understanding Opportunities in Social Entrepreneurship: A Critical Realist Abstraction

“…The complex structure-agency relations and SE actions identified (see Appendix 2), and the contextual diversity encompassing them suggest that SE opportunity emergence does not only require an individual social entrepreneur responding to internal beliefs, but also to be embedded in the broader social sector market and wider institutional context (de Bruin, Shaw, & Lewis, 2017). Accordingly, actualising SE opportunities requires greater complexity in managing relationships within communities (Austin et al, 2006; Haugh, 2007; Lumpkin et al, 2018) and research into SE opportunities must involve some elements of connectedness (Hu, 2018). In this vein, SE opportunities can be seen as “co-created between the entrepreneur, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders in the context” (Alvarez & Barney, 2014, p. 164), but this co-creation must also occur in a structured social world, with objective social needs existing and driving the interaction between social entrepreneurs and institutional, cognitive and embedded social structures.…”

“…Entities can exist in observable or unobservable ways—they can be physical, social or conceptual (Easton, 2010; O'Mahoney & Vincent, 2014). A social event occurs when a set of entities, possessing causal powers, combine and enable or constrain agential action (Hu, 2018). For example, a ‘social enterprise’ can emerge from the interactions between other entities such as social entrepreneurs but as an emergent entity, a ‘social enterprise’ can also obtain new causal powers, such as a hybrid organisational form.…”

A Multi-Study Exploration of Factors That Optimize Hardiness in Sport Coaches and the Role of Reflective Practice in Facilitating Hardy Attitudes

“…In accord with our critical realist perspective, the general aim of Study 1 was to generate knowledge (e.g., how hardiness might be developed) through a process of inductive inquiry. Subsequently, the mechanisms and underlying structures of this emergent knowledge could then be investigated (Study 2) to offer a more thorough examination of factors that may augment hardiness (Hu, 2018). Following procedures advocated by Braun and Clarke (2012), data were, therefore, analyzed thematically using a six-step inductive approach.…”

Using the realist interview approach to maintain theoretical awareness in realist studies

“…of the theories provided a stronger explanation (Judgemental rationality). Judgemental rationality is applied to evaluate and compare the explanatory power of different theoretical explanations and to select theories which most accurately represent the domain of "real" abductively (Hu, 2018). To this end, we asked the discussants to identify enabling and disabling mechanisms provided by the various modalities of the adherence club intervention in relation to the different contexts (three cases) that they were provided.…”