The Impact of Private Standards on Corporate Social Responsibility Compliance and Rural Workers’ Motivation in Developing Countries: A Study of Mango Farms in Pakistan

Table 3

Research paradigms.

Philosophical assumption	Positivism	Postpositivism	Critical theory	Constructivism
Ontology	Native realism: real reality exists but is apprehendable. It is conventionally summed up in time and context-free generalisations and is based on cause-effect laws.	Critical realism: real reality but only imperfectly and probabilistically apprehendable.	Historical realism: virtual reality shaped by social, political, cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender values, crystallised over time.	Relativism: local and specific constructed realities.
Epistemology	Dualist/objectivist; findings true.	Modified dualist/objectivist; critical tradition/community; findings probably true.	Transactional/subjective; value mediated findings.	Transactional/subjectivist; create findings.
Methodology	Experimental/manipulative; verification of hypotheses; chiefly quantitative methods.	Modifies experimental/manipulative; critical multiplism; falsification of hypotheses; may include qualitative methods.	Dialogic/dialectical.	Hermeneutical/dialectical.

Source: [32].