Outer Layers

Research Philosophies

The outermost layer of the research onion is philosophy which has two main categories: ontology and epistemology.

Figure 6: Research Onion (Saunders et al, 2009)

Ontology is an analytical philosophy studying the nature of an existence of something and its classification, it is derived from the Latin “ontologia”- the science of being. Whereas epistemology is concerned with the philosophy of knowledge. Commonly defined as “knowledge that” as opposed to “knowledge how” (Bengson & Moffett, 2011). In academic research epistemology refers to an individual’s philosophical beliefs as to what constitutes as acceptable knowledge in a field of study (Saunders et al., 2009).

Literature identifies four main streams of research philosophies: realism; pragmatism; interpretivism; and positivism, two Ontological approaches and two epistemological approaches respectively.

• Realism- is a research philosophy that information and sensation derived from our human senses are only part of the ultimate truth.
• Pragmatism- draws on “what works” pragmatism utilises the variety of actions to arrive at the desired result. Solving the problem is central to this philosophy and is orientated towards real-walled practice (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2011)
• Interpretivism- is a philosophy which emphasises the uniquely individual interpretation of participants experiencing the same event therefore dispelling the notion of treating a sample of humans as a homogenous mass. By highlighting this social aspect of research the researcher needs to understand the differences between the individuals as social actors (Saunders et al., 2009)

Due to constantly evolving and numerous complex factors that affect the development of trust and technology acceptance of a new technology; as well as both internal and external factors categorised by Salo & Karjaluoto’s (2007) trust model. A constructionist-subjective ontological philosophy as well as an epistemological philosophy will be used concurrently in a pragmatic approach. The ontological philosophy addresses the constantly changing social world through its “inter-actors”; the epistemological philosophy addresses the soft feelings and attitudes which is still pertinent to the Bitcoin environment. This allows for the best methods to be applied to the research problem thus generating objective and subjective knowledge for a more in-depth and complete analysis.

Research Approaches

In the second outermost layer of the research onion resides to distinct research approaches: deductive; and inductive approach (Bryman & Bell, 2007; Saunders et al, 2009)

Deductive approach-“theory and hypothesis deduced from it come first and drive the process of gathering data” (Bryman & Bell, 2007). In this approach existing literature is used as a foundation, research is used to confirm or on confirm the underlying theory. This often follows a positivism philosophy and is most useful where a wealth of existing literature already exists. Due to the mass uniform generalisation of theories the deductive approach is often linked to large sample sizes and quantitative research.

Inductive approach-in the absence or where little literature exists the inductive approach is often used due to its “open minded” way of looking at and exploring research results. Usually following the interpretivist philosophy patterns and trends and in extreme cases theories can be derived from this method.

Robson (2002) states that the choice of approach should be linked with the purpose of the research. Thus below are three categories of research purposes:

• Exploratory-the purpose of exploratory research is to scout out and initially identify issues or preliminary solutions in an area that might not have much existing literature.
• Descriptive-moving on from the exploratory purpose the descriptive purpose is used to create a more detailed picture of a research area. Scientific methods and specifically focused data collection are necessary drivers to this more in-depth approach.
• Casual-as the name implies this approach seeks a linear cause and effect relationship. The seemingly simplistic approach is useful for raising questions and opening doors for further research.

Ambitiously striving to enrich the research area of e-trust in relation to Bitcoin the author proposes to use a mixed method approach. By approaching the problem with multiple methods the author plans to build exploratory, descriptive, and casual analysis from research within the framework of Salo & Karjaluoto’s (2007) trust model which incorporates Venkatesh and Davis’ (1996) technology acceptance model (TAM). It is hoped that this specific model applied to the singular field of Bitcoin would allow for a mixed method approach using both inductive and deductive methods to yield fruitful findings. As little peer reviewed published literature exists in this field regarding Salo & Karjaluoto’s (2007) trust model and TAM in relation to Bitcoin exploratory research is required to initially validate any further research findings. The deductive approach can be applied by looking at Davis’ models in other studies. With the aim to provide new insights in this paper the research will proceed with both descriptive and casual analysis of the data which follow and inductive approach.

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