The potential of working hypotheses for deductive exploratory research
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The potential of working hypotheses for deductive exploratory research Mattia Casula1 · Nandhini Rangarajan2 · Patricia Shields2 Accepted: 5 November 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract While hypotheses frame explanatory studies and provide guidance for measurement and statistical tests, deductive, exploratory research does not have a framing device like the hypothesis. To this purpose, this article examines the landscape of deductive, exploratory research and offers the working hypothesis as a flexible, useful framework that can guide and bring coherence across the steps in the research process. The working hypothesis conceptual framework is introduced, placed in a philosophical context, defined, and applied to public administration and comparative public policy. Doing so, this article explains: the philosophical underpinning of exploratory, deductive research; how the working hypothesis informs the methodologies and evidence collection of deductive, explorative research; the nature of micro-conceptual frameworks for deductive exploratory research; and, how the working hypothesis informs data analysis when exploratory research is deductive. Keywords Exploratory research · Working hypothesis · Deductive qualitative research · Pragmatism
1 Introduction Exploratory research is generally considered to be inductive and qualitative (Stebbins 2001). Exploratory qualitative studies adopting an inductive approach do not lend themselves to a priori theorizing and building upon prior bodies of knowledge (Reiter 2013; Bryman 2004 as cited in Pearse 2019). Juxtaposed against quantitative studies that employ deductive confirmatory approaches, exploratory qualitative research is often criticized for lack of methodological rigor and tentativeness in results (Thomas and Magilvy 2011). This * Mattia Casula [email protected] Nandhini Rangarajan [email protected] Patricia Shields [email protected] 1
Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Strada Maggiore 45, 40125 Bologna, Italy
2
Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA
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paper focuses on the neglected topic of deductive, exploratory research and proposes working hypotheses as a useful framework for these studies. To emphasize that certain types of applied research lend themselves more easily to deductive approaches, to address the downsides of exploratory qualitative research, and to ensure qualitative rigor in exploratory research, a significant body of work on deductive qualitative approaches has emerged (see for example, Gilgun 2005, 2015; Hyde 2000; Pearse 2019). According to Gilgun (2015, p. 3) the use of conceptual frameworks derived from comprehensive reviews of literature and a priori theorizing were common practices in qualitative research prior to the publication of Glaser and Strauss’s (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Gilgun (2015) coined the terms Deductive Qualitative Analysis (DQA) to arrive at some sort of “middle-ground” such that the benefits of a priori theorizing (str
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