Empirical research pdf

Yet, knowledge that is produced in empirical psychological studies contains empirical results and theoretical interpretations. These interpretations are not determined by data and require a hermeneutic process.

For example, if one finds differences in IQ between racialized groups, which may be an empirical result, the interpretation that this difference is due to genetic factors, is a theoretical interpretation that is not determined in any way by data of empirical difference. Yet, if an empirical difference is interpreted as inferiority or problematizes the Other, whether this theorizing has epistemological or practical consequences, one should speak of a form of violence that is produced in ''knowledge.

Epistemological violence is a practice that is executed in empirical articles and books in psychology, when theoretical interpretations regarding empirical results implicitly or explicitly construct the Other as inferior or problematic, despite the fact that alternative interpretations, equally viable based on the data, are available.

The consequences of these theoretical interpretations are often but it is not a sine qua non for the denotation of the concept that the Other is understood as inferior or problematic within a given culture or subculture such as academia see also Teo, The part epistemological in this concept points out that these theoretical interpretations are framed as knowledge about the Other when in reality they are interpretations regarding data.

The term violence denotes that this "knowledge" has a negative impact on the Other or that the theoretical interpretations are produced to the detriment of the Other. The negative impact can range from misrepresentations and distortions, to a neglect of the voices of the Other, to propositions of inferiority, and to the recommendations of adverse practices or infringements concerning the Other.

The term epistemological violence as it is used in the argument does not refer to the misuse of research in general but is specific to theoretical interpretations of empirical results that have negative connotations for the Other in a given community.

At this point of argument a critic could suggest that it is unfair to label academic ideas as violent. Such a suggestion includes two dimensions: first, that ideas cannot be violent, and, second.

Indeed, the term violence in Western culture is usually associated with physical violence. However, I suggest, not that ideas are violent themselves, but rather theoretical propositions expressed by researchers.

A psychologist or human scientist provides a theoretical proposition in an article, chapter, or book, or expresses a theoretical proposition during a presentation, provides a speech act Writing something theoretical in publications and saying something theoretical at conferences means also doing something!

If a researcher provides a theoretical proposition on empirical data to the detriment of the Other, although the empirical propositions allow for equally viable alternative interpretations that do not construct the Other as inferior or problematic, then we are able to identifY a harmful action that has negative consequences. In short it is a violent action. The idea that Blacks are intellectually inferior by nature when expressed in an academic article has consequences for the Black reader or for non-Black readers who might construct the Black as intellectually inferior and might change their behavior.

A close look at this type of research shows that the theory Blacks are intellectually inferior by nature has never been tested but that empirical findings of difference are interpreted that way. I submit that such a theoretical proposition itself is violent even if it does not lead to harm. This can be compared to the throw of a fist of an attacker whereby the target ducks and the attacker misses.

The act of consciously throwing the fist itself is violent whether the target is hit or not. However, it should also be mentioned from the history of race studies that policies were changed because of the theoretical interpretations researchers and psychologists e.

This damage is done under the authority of science and knowledge. One could make the argument that ideas and hypotheses themselves are violent I do not necessarily disagree with such a proposition but hypotheses and ideas are not considered knowledge; yet, the theoretical interpretation of empirical data is presented and understood as knowledge. Indeed, it would not be difficult to identify violent hypotheses or ideas "do women enjoy being raped," "did Jews deserve to die in Auschwitz," or "was there ever a Holocausf'.

Some researchers enjoy pointing out that there should be no censorship on what can be studied, so a focus on and a critical analysis of violent hypotheses would soon be trapped in justifying what research should be allowed. It would put critics quickly on a defensive and might be determined by forces with power in society.

Yet, a focus on the theoretical interpretation of empirical data knowledge would put the onus on the researcher for justifying his or her interpretations. A critic just needs to identify the issue of representation and underdetermination and point to the hermeneutic deficit within traditional research on the Other. The concept of epistemological violence is descriptive although it has clearly moral connotations.

The concept is not about political correctness but about theoretical- empirical correctness. It is relatively easy to train individuals to identify epistemological violence in an article when they look at the problem of representation do the empirical propositions allow to test the theoretical propositions and do the theoretical propositions represent the empirical data?

At this point it should be said that liberal or progressive interpretations of differences regarding the Other may also be underdetermined by data and non representative of empirical results. However, if the theoretical propositions do not construct the Other as inferior or problematic, these theoretical propositions are not epistemologically violent For example, to interpret empirical difference, namely the underrepresentation of women faculty at elite universities, as women being less intelligent, or that women do not fill the extreme ends of a normal distribution, is an epistemologically violent interpretation of empirical data.

To interpret the same difference of the same empirical study as women being oppressed at elite universities also should be identified as an underdetermination and representation problem, but such a proposition would not be epistemologically violent to women.

At this point of reflection one could raise the question whether a theoretical interpretation that is epistemologically violent, should also be considered a hate crime? Is epistemological violence the equivalent of an academic hate crime? I have suggested that the category pair is intended as descriptive rather than moral or legal. If it were a legal matter then, at least in parts of North America, one would have to begin with the distinction of hate crime and hate speech.

A hate crime involves a criminal act, whereas regarding hate speech the speech itself is punished see Gerstenfeld, Although the law distinguishes between a conduct and an expression this distinction is not completely clear from a philosophical and a legal perspective because expressing propositions in writing or presenting is a form of action.

However, I would emphasize that a theoretical interpretation of empirical results, an epistemologically violent interpretation, does not have the same phenomenological quality as lynching.

Should It be? I would rather have this dIScussIon ill the academic domain by pointing out the relationship between empirical research and theoretical propositions of interpretation, discussing the history and its consequences of the construction of the Other, and by descriptively identifying epistemological violence committed by academics against the Other. However, I suggest that we do not abandon the critical potential that can be found throughout his academic career, including the early parts.

Holzkamp's constructivist critique of the shortcomings of mainstream research and his analysis of the logic of traditional research are still valid as I attempted to show. Holzkamp's ideas are generative, meaning that they can be applied and developed for current discussions and they can be updated and made relevant to contemporary concerns. Indeed, theoretical interpretations of empirical material often do not represent the theory they pretend to test but they can have severe consequences.

Scientists who are experts in particular areas assume that they have a superior understanding of the events and objects in their area of research. That may be a self-misunderstanding. The aim and structure of physical theory p. Wiener, Trans. Original work published Gerstenfe1d, P. Hate crimes: Causes, controls, and controversies. The article ends with a discussion of our empirical findings together with its implications for support activities related to technology transfer and commercialization of research results.

Keywords: academic entrepreneurship, knowledge corridor, research commercialization Disclaimer: All the opinions expressed in this paper are the responsibility of the individual author or authors and do not necessarily represent the views of other CIRCLE researchers. This has among other things led to that universities nowadays not only are expected to function as providers of human capital but also as growth engines to boost regional and national economies Rasmussen, Moen and Gulbrandsen, The high expectation on universities to support research commercialization is especially evident in engineering, natural science and medical faculties as empirical evidence demonstrate a high rate of growth oriented ventures originating from these sources Shane, ; Wright, Clarysse, Mustar and Lockett, As such, our study leans on the acknowledgement of the importance of technology transfer and knowledge diffusion from universities to the private sector for long term economic growth in national economies Link and Siegel, Despite the increasing interest in gaining knowledge about how to support the transfer of university generated knowledge into the commercial domain there are surprisingly few studies that empirically examine the very early stages of research commercialization where the initial ideas for commercial exploitation are first identified and developed Hindle and Yencken, Instead, the bulk of studies have examined the formation and growth of spin off companies e.

These studies are all of great merit as they have greatly contributed to our understanding of the later stage aspects of research commercialization. However, the early development and growth of a new venture centers on a business idea that must have been recognized and evaluated at some earlier point in time.

As such, our knowledge of the very early stages of research commercialization is still scarce despite its relevance for both theory and practice. The explanation is that exposure to certain kinds of life and work experience triggers an entrepreneurial conjecture and channel individuals into different knowledge corridors which influence their ability to spot and seize new business ideas and profit opportunities Corbett, We develop and test our hypotheses on a sample of university professors from engineering, natural science and medical faculties in a large Swedish university.

University professors can in this respect be considered as key persons in the transfer of technology and research-based know-how from university settings to private enterprise. Not only do they have deep expert knowledge in their specific scientific fields combined with a developed network of valuable contacts van Rijnsoever, Hessels and Vanderberg, , but they have also reached the highest academic position which may provide them with incentives to extend their influence beyond traditional campus activities like research and teaching Baldwin and Blackburn, This has left the issue of how personnel from the private sector to the university may influence technology transfer and commercialization of research results within academia largely unexplored.

Our understanding of the effects of private sector work experience on public research commercialization is thus still in its infancy, something which we believe limits academic debate about the topic and hence call for further scholarly inquiry.

The rest of this article is organized into three sections. In the next section, we start with a literature review that cover issues related to technology transfer and commercialization of research results. In this section we also develop our hypotheses based on the knowledge corridor thesis.

Then follows the method section were we present the sample and the variables used in the study. Thereafter we present a section with the analysis and results of the test of our hypotheses. The article ends with a discussion of our empirical findings and its implications for support activities related to technology transfer and commercialization of research results.

Universities are hence nowadays generally seen as potential contributors of innovation, job creation and technical change through university-industry collaborations and through their support of new knowledge- intensive start-ups Chrisman, Hynes and Frasier, ; Etzkowitz and Leyesdorf, ; Rasmussen, Moen and Gulbrandsen, As a result of these changes, universities are increasingly taking technology transfer and commercialization of research results as a part of their explicit mission due to pressures on universities to contribute to economic development and opportunities to gain personal wealth.

Technology transfer and research commercialization Technology transfer can occur either in an indirect or direct manner. Indirectly, research results can be applied and used in the commercial sector without formal contractual agreements between the university and users. Examples include the traditional tasks of universities in providing research-based education and publishing research results in scientific journals.

However, university generated knowledge can also be transferred to the commercial arena in a more direct manner which encompasses activities outside of the normal university duties of basic research and teaching Klofsten and Jones-Evans, As such, compared to research-based education and publishing research results these latter activities are more deliberate attempts to increase individual or institutional profit, influence or prestige through the development, marketing and commercialization of research-based ideas or products Louis et al.

Thus, commercialization cannot take place without prior discovery. This view is consistent with conceptual and empirical work in the entrepreneurship field where the entrepreneurial process start with the perception of opportunities for recombining resources on the market that someone believes will yield profit e.

However, despite the interest in increasing the transfer of university generated knowledge from academia to industry there is up to date little theory informing the processes whereby the initial ideas for research commercialization emerge. Instead, most studies have examined research commercialization post the decision to exploit an opportunity thus leaving the organizing processes leading up to the identification of a new potential business idea largely unexplored Hindle and Yencken, ; Vohora, Wright and Lockett, To meet this observed gap in the literature it is the generation of research based business ideas that is the main focus in our study.

University professors and research commercialization University generated knowledge is not automatically transferred into the commercial domain and the main carriers of this knowledge in the very early phases of research commercialization are academics who are directly involved in its actual production.

The high level of tacit knowledge inspiring research based business idea generation often entails that such novel insights initially are subjectively constituted and created in the minds of people Hindle and Yencken, University professors are in this respect an important group of academics for the generation of business ideas that can be developed and commercially exploited.

Second, their academic career has provided them with opportunities to build up a network of contacts and relationships which may be used as a viable platform for venturing activities Lee and Bozeman, ; van Rijnsoever et al.

Third, by reaching the highest academic position they have come to a career turning point where they may seek to diversify their career activities and seek influence and recognition in arenas outside the university Baldwin and Blackburn, Hence, it seems reasonable to suggest that university professors can be seen as key persons in the early stages of the process where research results are transformed into ideas for new or improved products, services or production processes.

Research based idea generation and the knowledge corridor thesis A key starting point for understanding technology transfer and commercialization of research results is to examine the initial discovery or generation of potential research based business ideas.

However, in order to spot and seize viable opportunities for potential commercial exploitation individuals need to have a predisposition towards being alert to signals of commercial potential Gaglio and Katz, ; Kirzner, The knowledge corridor refers to that the mere act of being involved in entrepreneurial activities enables the identification of additional ideas for new business that an individual could neither see, nor take advantage of until they engaged in this process.

The explanation is that entrepreneurial experience seems to favor the development of a cognitive framework which makes individuals more alert to signals of commercial opportunities in their environment Corbett, ; Baron, As such, an experientially acquired knowledge corridor enables individuals to make sense of commercial opportunities in order to generate new business ideas Venkataraman, ; Parks, Consequently, if applied to academic settings, it seems fair to argue that prior entrepreneurial experience can be expected to impact the mindset and knowledge base of university professors which in turn influence their ability to generate and discover potential research based business ideas.

Arguments from the knowledge corridor thesis are well in line with an emerging stream of research that suggests that exposure to diverse life and work experiences, particularly experience from customers and markets, play a prominent role in explaining successful opportunity discovery Shane, ; Politis, ;.

Academics researchers rarely have commercially oriented networks and they also have relatively little contact with non-technical people Clarysse and Moray, Tacit knowledge and experiential insights about customers needs and how markets work could then help professors to receive positive recommendations and commercial evaluation at the right places, which in turn may favor their own perception of commercial potential and business ideas based on their research Shane, A reasonable expectation may thus be that the more time for research the greater the likelihood of generating more research based business ideas.

However, we conjecture that the time for research has a moderating effect on the relationship between prior entrepreneurial and private sector work experience and research based idea generation. The argument behind this conjecture is that we can expect that the research carried out by professors with entrepreneurial experience and greater private sector experience to a larger extent is triggered by observable problems in industry, sometimes perhaps even in response to the need to solve specific problems in interaction with industry partners Burnside and Witkin, There may consequently in such cases be a notion — even if it is initially vague — of how to meet or fulfill a market need see for example the case described in Klofsten, Moreover, the different pieces or particles of knowledge underlying research based business ideas are often a combination of both tacit i.

Research based idea generation can thus be seen as the result of a continuous interaction of these two main types of human knowledge Nonaka and Takeuchi, , which in turn may lead to the creation of knowledge and beliefs about new ways to serve customers and markets Shane, In all, professors with more time for research in their positions can thus be expected to enhance the positive effect of prior entrepreneurial and private sector work experience on research based idea generation.

In sum, our theoretical expectations can be expressed as follows: Hypothesis 1: University professors who have prior entrepreneurial experience will report a higher number of research based business ideas.

Hypothesis 2: University professors who have private sector work experience will report a higher number of research based business ideas. Hypothesis 3: The effect of prior entrepreneurial experience on the number of reported research based business ideas will be enhanced with increasing time for research in their positions. Hypothesis 4: The effect of private sector work experience on the reported number of research based business ideas will be enhanced with increasing time for research in their positions.

Method Research approach and context of study This study was undertaken in Sweden, which is a small country but with a highly educated workforce and a relatively large higher education sector.

Sweden often ranks highly according to indicators used in the OECD. For example, according to official statistics Sweden devotes about 1. Sweden has in total about fifty higher education establishments where twenty-one of these have university status with the right to award doctoral degrees Swedish National Agency for Higher Education, Only three of the universities are privately owned while the others are state owned.

We focused our study to one university to control for different university policies aimed at research commercialization Rasmussen et al. The choice fell on Lund University as it is one of the leading universities in Europe when it comes to the quality of research in areas such as medicine, science and technology.

Moreover, the size and structure of the university offers the opportunity to get a satisfactory sample size with respect to the number of university professors working in these different faculties.

In total, the university involves about 38 students and employees, including 2 postgraduate students and full professors. The research carried out at Lund University is strong compared to other Swedish universities. About half of the research conducted at Lund University is state funded while the rest of it is grant funded. Only a very small fraction is industry sponsored research. Questionnaire design To meet the aim of the study and test the hypotheses developed in the literature review we designed the empirical study as a questionnaire survey.

The measures used in the questionnaire was derived from a careful review of previous theoretical and empirical work on academic entrepreneurship and public sector research commercialization e. The questions were pilot tested on a group of academics and based on this feedback the questions were honed and clarified for the final research instrument. Due to a skewed distribution within the data the variable was transformed using a logarithmic transformation before put in the analysis.

We are aware of the potential critique against our measure of the dependent variable. However, we have a few arguments that speak in favour of our choice. Second, we acknowledge that our count measure is biased towards the quantity rather than the quality of business idea.

However, in line with arguments in McGrath and Macmillan we posit that there is a value in generating more rather than less business ideas. For example, in a larger pool of potential business ideas there is greater likelihood that one or some of them can develop into a viable business concept. Third, to control for the risk that reported business ideas are not followed by any interest or willingness to develop and pursue some of these ideas, we correlated it against potential gestation activities undertaken by the respondents.

Items measuring gestation activities were taken from Reynolds These activities include respondents seriously thinking about a business, making investments of their own money in the business idea, organizing a team with the intent to further explore the business idea, writing a business plan, seeking financial support, developing a business model, and applying for a patent see APPENDIX for a detailed list of all gestation activities.

In all, given these controls and reasons stated above we think that our measure is satisfactory given the aim and purpose of this study. In addition, we include four control variables in our analysis. First, we control for faculty belonging since researchers affiliated with faculties where industrial contract research is encouraged are more favorably disposed to personal involvement in commercialization activities Campbell and Slaughter, Engineering faculties are in this respect more likely to defend the applied research norm and see commercialization of research results as highly appropriate Nora and Olivas, ; Lee, Engineering faculty belonging was used as the reference category and thus omitted from the analysis.

Second, we control for the age of the respondent. Third, we control for the gender of the respondents as research indicates that entrepreneurship is a gender biased activity Minitti, Bygrave and Autio, The rationale behind this control was that academics with experience from contexts with institutional arrangements that support research commercialization, such as UK or the US, may themselves be more prone to engage in such activities Bercovitz and Feldmann, This led to a total of identified potential respondents.

Of these, were from the faculty of engineering, were from the faculty of natural science and were from the medical faculty.

An invitation to participate in an electronic survey hosted on a Lund University web page was e-mailed to all potential respondents. After two reminders we received a total of responses, which is equal to an effective response rate of approximately This response rate compares favorably to prior studies of entrepreneurship and research commercialization in academic environments Louis et al.

An overview of the responding professors is presented in Table 1 below. Min-max Mean S. Research based business ideas 0 - 20 2. The mean age is Although the gender bias is evident in all faculties there is a relatively great span in age between the youngest and the oldest professor in the sample, ranging from 36 years to 81 years. Moreover, about 40 percent of the respondents have taken some or all of their PhD education in the US or the UK, something which reflect the high international profile of Lund University.

The average time for research in position is But also here we can see that there is a relatively great span, ranging from 5 percent to percent. Moreover, on comparison the medical faculty and the science faculty have professors with higher time for research in their position than the engineering faculty. What may be interesting to note in Table 1 is that as high as about 40 percent of the responding professors have entrepreneurial experience from starting up or owning a small business.

The percentage is slightly higher in the engineering and medical faculties 43 and 44 percent respectively while the science faculty is considerably lower 25 percent. However, this does not mean that these businesses are of little or no value for the aim and purpose of this study since they all constitute an act of organizational creation which has the potential to trigger further entrepreneurial activities.

Another thing that can be noticed in Table 1 is the relatively low average of private industry work experience among the responding professors, with an average across all faculties of 3. Professors in the engineering faculty have the highest average 5. Although the average private industry work experience is relatively low, this can probably be explained by the fact that successful promotion to professor requires significant investments which in turn may leave little time for excursions in private industry, for example writing scientific papers, running large scale research projects, supervising PhD students, and building an academic network.

The relatively low average of private industry work experience among the responding professors indicate a relatively low level of inter-sectorial mobility in Sweden, at least from industry to the university sector. We conducted a series of chi-square and t-tests to assess whether the results from the sample could be generalized to the initial population of respondents with regard to gender and faculty representation.

In these analyses we found a slight under-representation of respondents from the Medical and Science faculties. The differences were however minor and at closer look not likely to distort results to any large extent. They explain what scholarly articles look like, how to read them, and how to evaluate them:. It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.

If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results. Introduction: What is Empirical Research? Key characteristics to look for: Specific research questions to be answered Definition of the population, behavior, or phenomena being studied Description of the process used to study this population or phenomena, including selection criteria, controls, and testing instruments such as surveys Another hint: some scholarly journals use a specific layout, called the "IMRaD" format, to communicate empirical research findings.