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Cross-Disciplinary Scientific Foundation for Sustainability Chapter j 3 39

in the study of business economics based on an old tradition to understand,
appreciate or criticize, and apply the results of business research to understand
everyday business activities.
When the conventional paradigm continues to dominate both researchers
and students alike, then their study of social science phenomena, in the
objectivistic tradition, is “allowed” to prevail. In short, their perspective
(rooted in this one particular paradigm) directs their work, influences the
results, and skews the applications. To some extent, objectivism is now a
restrained and an ambiguous concept, which according to many researchers
covers not only different but also often conflicting relations.
In research there has, however, been a slow shift over the years toward a
more “qualitative” approach. Empiricism as reflected in structuralism, logical
positivism, or quantification of data has not shown that it can understand
business and economics. And while we argue that more qualitative science
must be a part of business economics, we fully acknowledge that the same
concern to probe and ask basic scientific questions about perspectives of di-
rection of work and skewed results must apply herein as well.
1
Today we see more “case studies” (but with widely different approaches
and perspectives) and qualitative investigations than we have experienced
previously as graduate students and even in more recent years as professors.
This social constructionism or the so-called softening partly originates from
the anomalies, which Kuhn (1962) explains is part of the continuing devel-
opment of science. Researchers must experience the problems and explana-
tions in the existing frame of theory to start looking for alternative paradigms.
However, we shall demonstrate how “qualitative” research or ethnography can
still be associated with the positivist paradigm, and therefore be subject to the
same basic problems as its quantitative equivalent. The key is to “map or link”
the subjectivist tradition with the objectivist techniques (numerical, mathe-
matics, etc.) when appropriate and useful.
Our approach has its roots (ontological and epistemological) in the
Lifeworld tradition, with the theoretical perspectives reflected in the sub-
jectivism paradigm. We will discuss a different philosophical tradition that
presents an alternative to the objectivist tradition in social science and
business economics. The Lifeworld tradition and subjectivist paradigm
reflect the conception of science as reflected in linguistics, which is an
established science directed to the everyday life reality of human
interactionism.
This subjectivist paradigm is not an alternative philosophy of science, as it
simply follows a different philosophical heritage than the current dominant
paradigm of objectivism. The subjectivism paradigm deals with a different

1. Albeit primarily used as exploitative investigations, and often used before “the real investigation
is started,” i.e., a quantitative questionnaire/survey investigation.