From a philosophical standpoint, methodology can be described as a paradigm that underpins research (Blaxter, Hughes and Tight 2004: p.59; O'Leary 2005: p.85). It is the design (strategy and rationale) that that sits behind the use of particular techniques used to enquire into a specific situation (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Lowe 2002: p.31) in order to achieve a desired outcome (Crotty 1998: p.7).
Before discussing methodologies, it is useful to make a distinction between quantitative and qualitative perspectives, as these concepts offer a basic framework for separating out the "knowledge camps" (Blaxter, Hughes and Tight 2004: p.60). It is at the methodological level of the social research design framework where a distinction is made between these approaches (Crotty: 1988: p.14). Quantitative research involves establishing causal relationships between variables and analysing objective and statistically valid data (Denzin and Lincoln 2003: p.13). Thus, this perspective is typically associated with objectivism / positivism and therefore does not complement this research.
On the other hand, the qualitative approach is consistent with the epistemology and the theoretical perspective chosen for this research. Qualitative research relates to the examination of social phenomena (Marshall and Rossman 2011: p.3; Labuschagne 2003) and involves constructing, investigating and reinforcing the understanding that people have about their social traditions and / or institutions (Neuman 2007: p.43), typically using non-numeric data (Blaxter, Hughes and Tight 2004: p.64). Thus, the task for qualitative researchers, according to Patton (2002: p.21), is to develop a framework for people for which they can best respond about the world and how they relate to it e.g. through describing situations, events, interactions, etc (Labuschagne 2003) that are pertinent to them.
Other reasons for disregarding the quantitative approach are that that it is better suited to studying the extent i.e. the magnitude to which variation and diversity occurs rather than exploring the variation and diversity of values, beliefs, perceptions, etc (Kumar 2011: p.104); quantitative methods tend to ask standardised questions and use a limited number of pre-determined categories in recording responses as opposed to studying selected phenomena in-depth, where much attention is afforded to detail, context and nuance (Patton 2002: p.227); and qualitative research typically seeks the agreement of respondents in the interpretation of data, whereas this is not necessarily the case with quantitative research (Kumar 2011: p.104).
Turning to the specific methodologies, experimental research has been discarded for this research as it exemplifies the quantitative approach as well as the objectivist / positivist philosophical traditions by adhering to the logic and principles of natural science research (Blaxter, Hughes and Tight 2004: p.67; Neuman 2007: p.20). It is differentiated from action research which is defined as collaborative effort (between people), where research is systematically undertaken to resolve issues or challenges (Berg 2007: p.224) by developing and then testing alternative courses of action to resolve a problem (Kumar 2011: p.131), particularly in the workplace (Blaxter, Hughes and Tight 2004: p.67). Action research has been discarded because within the field of management, it is considered to be quasi-experimental research (Gill and Johnson 2002: p.71) and is therefore analogous with the quantitative approach. Action research also requires the active involvement of the researcher in the exploration and testing of alternative solutions. This is impractical in the context of PPPs, given their complexity and longevity.
Ethnography is the study of culturally shared perceptions (Brewer in Cassell and Symon 2004: p.312; O'Leary 2005: p.118) of day-to-day occurrences (van Manen 1990: p.177) i.e. people's beliefs, motivations and behaviours (Tedlock in Denzin and Lincoln 2003: p.166). It involves the immersion of the researcher into the setting of the research participants (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Lowe 2002: p.49) and developing detailed accounts of members' explicit and tacit cultural knowledge to understand meaning and significance (Neuman 2007: p.277; Gill and Johnson 2002: p.123), primarily through the method of participant observation (Patton 2002: p.81; Gill and Johnson 2002: p.123). Although qualitative, this methodology will not be fully taken up for this research as the subject matter under study involves PPP operational matters that are strategic in nature, where the key concepts such as VfM, partnership management, risk management, performance management, etc are abstract and not necessarily visually identifiable. Nevertheless, relevant aspects of ethnography will be used.
Grounded theory entails the use of systematic, inductive principles for collecting and examining research findings e.g. through the development of themes, codes and categories to develop theoretical frameworks that offer new meaning (Charmaz in Denzin and Lincoln 2003: p.249-250, p.269). However, the methodology has been set aside as this research adopts a phenomenological theoretical perspective and thus rejects the possibility of constructing these types of social theories from the research data.
Discourse analysis is a methodology that relates predominantly to the analysis of the written (or spoken) word (Marshall and Rossman 2011: p.93; Dick in Cassell and Symon 2004: p.203). As previously stated, this research will utilise literary texts, industry reports and interviews with subject matter experts relevant to PPP.
Feminist standpoint research is characterised by the feminist theoretical perspective (Kumar 2011: p.132) and, as already argued, is not totally suitable.
Survey research involves asking people questions where answers are recorded either in a written questionnaire or during an interview (Neuman 2007: p.20). Although the application of survey research is appropriate for this research, phenomenology is the preferred methodology, with semi-structured interviews being used for deeper investigation.
Phenomenological research is chosen because of its logical fit with the selected theoretical perspective and epistemological positions. As previously stated, phenomenology involves examining, explaining and analysing the meaning of lived experience to gain a new / enhanced meaning or to validate the existing meaning of phenomena to discover what 'essentially is'. A key aspect of phenomenology is 'intentionality'. This notion refers to the experience of consciousness in which we dwell in thought, perception, judgement, etc in order to comprehend essences of objects or constructs (this is what Sanders (1982) refers to as what "essentially is") (Sokolowski 2000: p.8; Moustakas 1994: p.55). Thus the essence of phenomena is known through the use of 'intentional' analysis ('intentional' referring to the total meaning of an object / construct) of the relationship between the 'noema' and the 'noesis' (Sanders 1982). Noema can be described as the object / construct as it is perceived to be (Moustakas 1994: p.70) i.e. the total meaning of what is expected, whereas noesis is the way in which that object / construct is experienced (Moustakas 1994: p.69) i.e. the act of the experience.
There are two additional concepts integral to phenomenological methodology for this research: 'epoché' and 'eidetic reduction'. Epoché (or 'bracketing' as it is also known) (Sanders 1982) involves temporarily suspending the researcher's personal biases, judgements, beliefs, etc about the object / construct under investigation by putting his or her preconceptions into brackets (Crowell in Wrathhall and Dreyfus 2011: p.77; Sokolowski 2000: p.49) in order to arrive at the vision of what 'essentially is'. Bracketing allows researchers to see the world in new ways and thus as a means to derive new knowledge (Moustakas 1994: p.33, 85) about what is being studied. The other concept is 'eidetic reduction', a procedure used for abstracting the essence from experiences (Crowell in Wrathhall and Dreyfus 2011: p.57) which relies upon intuition and reflection to establish new patterns (or confirm existing ones) (Sanders 1982; Moustakas 1994: p.95). It essentially requires the researcher to look and describe the object / construct, again and again (each time with new understanding) until its essence is uncovered (Moustakas 1994: p.95). Relevant aspects of both of these concepts will be incorporated into the research design to strengthen the phenomenological approach.
Finally, Sanders (1982) suggests that a phenomenological research design comprises three key elements: deciding the scope of whom and what the research will focus upon, collecting the data and analysing the data. The first two elements are discussed in the method section (see 2.3.4) and the third component forms section 2.4, 'Data Analysis Method'.
The last methodology to be discussed in this section is heuristic inquiry. This draws upon intense, personal experiences of the researcher and co-researchers e.g. loneliness, jealousy, etc (Patton 2002: p.234), where the combination of experience and intensity of the subject matter under study leads to understanding the phenomenon's essence (Patton 2002: p.107). Douglass and Moustakas (in Patton 2002: p.108) assert that phenomenology is distinct from heuristic inquiry: heuristics focuses on connection and relationship whereas phenomenology involves greater detachment in analysing experiences; and with heuristics, the research process ends with a creative synthesis that is implicit with the researcher's intuition and understanding, whereas phenomenology is concerned with developing a distillation of the structures of experience. Heuristic inquiry for this research is discounted as it does not seek to understand intense, personal experiences and synthesise them intuitively.