Introduction
A research process is usually regulated by a researcher’s assumptions and beliefs regarding the reality and by a specific study purpose. The research philosophy selected by an investigator is important to determine what research methods will be chosen for conducting a planned study (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016). In this case, the research selected for the analysis is described in “Responsible Tourism: An Inductive Approach” by Ramachandran (2009). The purpose of this paper is to discuss a specific research process described in the mentioned article with the focus on the particular philosophy.
Research Topic and Questions
In the article, the researcher identified the topic of the study in an introductory section. Only several sentences were written in order to provide the reader with some general idea regarding the problem of responsible tourism analyzed in this research. It is important to note that Ramachandran (2009) did not formulate any research question to be addressed in this study. Therefore, conclusions regarding the success of the study can be made only with reference to the achieved or non-achieved purposes, as it is stated in the final sections of the article.
Importance of the Topic and Aims of the Study
The researcher emphasized the importance of the topic while accentuating the presence of a socio-economic gap in terms of addressing rich and poor people in the sphere of tourism. Thus, Ramachandran (2009) focused on the necessity of managing tourism activities in a responsible manner in order to respond to this gap. Still, the importance of the study was not described clearly in the article. In the introductory section, the purpose of the study is formulated as to determine pragmatic techniques and processes in promoting responsible tourism. However, in the abstract, the aim is stated as to determine particular indicators of responsible tourism.
Literature Review
It is important to pay attention to the fact that there is no separate literature review section in the article. Ramachandran (2009) provided the results of reviewing the existing literature on the topic only in the introduction. Still, it is almost impossible to state that the provided review is critical enough because it lacks the detailed analysis of other studies on the problem. One should note that the sources mentioned in the introductory sentences are used by the author only for supporting the selection of conceptual models.
Research Philosophy
In the study, the researcher has applied interpretivism as a key paradigm that is appropriate for this investigation. Interpretivism can be defined as a philosophy that is aimed at understanding specific meanings that are created by people regarding certain objects, situations, events, processes, and phenomena (Saunders et al., 2016). From this perspective, an interpretivist philosophy can be viewed as subjective in its nature. This philosophy is used by the author as a background for the inductive approach and the further development of an exploratory study to understand what responsible tourism indicators are determined by stakeholders.
Conclusion
The research article under analysis describes the details of the study conducted according to the principles of the exploratory research grounded in interpretivism. Presenting the detailed description of the applied methodology, the article still lacks the information on research questions, the importance of this study, and the literature review section. From this perspective, it is possible to state that the discussed article has some weaknesses in representing the process of research selected by the author.
References
Ramachandran, S. (2009). Responsible tourism: An inductive approach. Integration & Dissemination, 4, 41-50.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2016). Research methods for business students (7 ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education.