{"id":6960,"date":"2024-03-01T09:29:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T08:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/?p=6960"},"modified":"2024-03-16T12:32:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T11:32:10","slug":"how-why-wha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/?p=6960","title":{"rendered":"How? Why? Wha&#8230;?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I teach at a business school, so many of my students are practically minded. Their research projects have problem statements like, &#8220;How can Xompany, Inc. meet ESG requirements while maintaining longterm growth?&#8221; When I talk to them, I sometimes challenge them to tell me what their <em>empirical<\/em> question is. They say things like, &#8220;Why is it hard to increase both shareholder value and ESG ratings?&#8221; Is that really an <em>empirical<\/em> question? I ask. It sounds more like a theoretical one. What is it you don&#8217;t know about Xompany that you want to learn with this project? What is it you can&#8217;t know until you&#8217;ve collected some data and analyzed it? <em>That<\/em> is your empirical question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The how-question will be answered in their discussion and the why-question will be framed by their theory. The theory will provide the warrant for their practical recommendations; it will tell us why what they are proposing will work. But the real content of the answer will come from what-questions, which will be answered in the analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This simple heuristic may be another way into the thorny issues of<a href=\"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/?p=6944\"> the philosophy of science<\/a>, which I&#8217;m working on very deliberately these days. <em>Empirical<\/em> research tries to settle questions that are &#8220;framed&#8221; by concepts (theories) and &#8220;driven&#8221; by norms (values). But our theories and values can&#8217;t interact directly. They must meet on the solid ground of objective fact.  Why-questions lead us to formulate explanations. How-questions lead us to formulate recommendations. But what-questions demand that we <em>describe<\/em> reality as it is, even if that reality puzzles us or thwarts our aims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I teach at a business school, so many of my students are practically minded. Their research projects have problem statements like, &#8220;How can Xompany, Inc. meet ESG requirements while maintaining longterm growth?&#8221; When I talk to them, I sometimes challenge them to tell me what their empirical question is. They say things like, &#8220;Why is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/?p=6960\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How? Why? Wha&#8230;?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6960"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7015,"href":"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6960\/revisions\/7015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inframethodology.cbs.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}