Understanding Supply Chain Digitalization Through Actor-Network Theory by Gianluca Vitale

Author:Gianluca Vitale
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783031309885
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland

3.3 Historical Approaches to Social Studies

3.3.1 Positivism

The positivist paradigm was the first to be used in the social sciences (Corbetta, 2003). One of the founding fathers of this paradigm is Durkheim, who considered social facts as effectively existing independently of the individual consciousness of the researcher and, therefore, they can be objectively studied (Durkheim, 1895).

Starting from these considerations, the positivist ontology is characterized by a naive realism since, for the positivists, the social reality exists and has a precise natural order, and its complexity could be overcome by reductionism (Aliyu et al., 2014). In light of this, in the positivist paradigm, human behaviours are guided by universal causal laws, and the researcher’s goal is to discover and document these laws (Neuman, 2014). Since reality exists apart from the researcher’s knowledge, on an epistemological level, positivism is characterized by the dualism between researcher and object of study that does not influence each other in any way (Corbetta, 2003). For these reasons, the methodology is experimental and manipulative. In particular, questions and/or hypotheses are stated in propositional form and subjected to empirical tests to verify them (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). Moreover, the separation between observed and observer leads the latter to proceed in a mainly inductive way (Corbetta, 2003).

Researchers who adopt a positivist approach tend to have a realistic and objective world view and, therefore, prefer quantitative and confirmatory methods of analysis (Aliyu et al., 2014).

Although the positivist philosophy has been adopted for many years by numerous scholars (including Comte and Durkheim were the precursors), it has revealed some important critical points. Orlikowski and Baroudi (1991) discuss two fundamental weaknesses of positivist philosophy. At first, the quest for universal laws can lead to neglecting the influences that history or contexts can have on human action. However, in any social field, actions and decisions are often taken based on past experiences (Orlikowski & Baroudi, 1991). Therefore, conducting social research regardless of the historical events that preceded and characterized a given phenomenon could be misleading.

The other criticism that Orlikowski and Baroudi (1991) move towards positivist philosophy concerns research techniques. Having a deterministic approach to the explanation of phenomena, the positivist researcher places himself in a predefined and circumscribed position concerning the object of study. This approach appears to be weak and limiting when the research aims to discover and understand non-deterministic and reciprocal relationships (Orlikowski & Baroudi, 1991).

Finally, on an epistemological level, positivism supports the duality between the observed and the observer, which is characterized by being detached, objective and impartial. However, Aliyu et al. (2014) underline how the positivist philosophy has not been able to define a truly impartial approach, and, therefore, it tends to be self-contradictory by examining events that are formed by the researcher.

The limits revealed by positivism have led scholars to modify the paradigm itself. Therefore, to respond to the criticisms that had been advanced on positivism, scholars founded the paradigm of postpositivism (Corbetta, 2003).

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