Research Approach
Internationalizing the Small and Medium Sized Firm – four cases
The authors started with an investigation of certain phenomena in reality. These observations were then used to formulate hypotheses (in the form of tentative advice) about internationalization of SME’s; this is what is referred to as an inductive approach (Merriam 1994). The opposite, where a hypothesis is formulated based on theory and tested in reality is called deductive (Wiedersheim & Eriksson 1991). There is also a mixture of the two where the researchers formulate some hypotheses, which are then evaluated through the observation of reality. This is called the hypothetical deductive approach (Wiedersheim & Eriksson 1991). The authors had some vague hypotheses in mind before starting their work but the purpose was to investigate the phenomena first and then formulate the hypotheses, why they can be said to have used an inductive approach.
