Page 81 - IMDR EBOOK 20 OCT 2020

"Pandemic and Beyond: Naviga ng the New Normal" E - Book Year 2020

The structure of this research is adopted from the research onion. The Onion approach,
gives a particular direction to the research and for each stage postulates the selected
choice. The idea is to have not only a logical but also a scientic approach that can be
adopted to achieve the research objectives.

Figure 1: Research Onion
(Source: Saunders et al. 2016)
2.2 Research Philosophy

Every research study requires moving forward with a core belief and a value system.
For understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the marketing spends,
and marketing and advertising strategies, the correct selection of research philosophy
is likely to assist (Zhong et al. 2018). Research philosophies can be classied into three
categories: Positivism philosophy, Interpretivist philosophy and Realism philosophy.

A positive research philosophy takes into account the factual knowledge including
measurements. In, this philosophy data is collected and interpreted in an objective
manner and ndings are generally quantiable. In a positive research philosophy, a
clear and direct correlation between the independent and the dependent variables is
represented.

In an Interpretivist research, the elements of the study are interpreted, thus
interpretivism mixes human interest into a study. Interpretivist research study is
developed basis the critique of positivism in social science. Thus, this thinking
emphasizes on qualitative analysis rather than quantitative analysis. It is with the help
of interpretive philosophy that the participants of the research project their
perspectives.
Realism research philosophy relies on the knowledge of independence of reality from
human mind. It is through realism philosophy that a situational consideration
undertakes a dominant role for designing the ideology of the researcher.
As the present research deals with a contemporary and relevant market issue to
understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on marketing spends, and
marketing and advertising strategies, adapting an interpretivist philosophy shall prove
to be the most effective.
Positivism leads to concentration on facts and has no provision for human interests.
With the positivism studies there will be no requirements for human interests within
the study. The other two types of philosophies if used shall end up limiting the research
frame and may fail to give substantial outcomes to base the results, hence a positivism
research philosophy is ideal for this research.

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