Revolutionary Research Strategies for E-business Management: a Philosophy of Science Perspective for Research Design and Data Collection in the Age of the Internet

Just as the Internet has changed the way many businesses conduct business, the Internet can also change the way academic researchers gather data. We describe revolutionary research strategies that employ six new data-collecting methodologies that can be employed using Internet technology. Data-collecting agents can gather very large amounts of data from the World Wide Web in a fraction of the time and the cost that it takes to gather data using traditional research methodologies. Online experiments, online judgment tasks, and online surveys expand the reach and reduce the cost when compared to traditional experiments, judgment tasks, and surveys. Because of the vast amounts of data available online, quasi-experiments can be conducted that allow the researcher to find subjects that meet some stimulus and some control without taking them out of their own environment. Finally, log files track a person’s movements and actions through a Web site. This article investigates the use of these relatively new tools from a philosophy of science perspective. We find that these new data collecting tools can enable research that is difficult or impossible when using traditional, non-online research methodologies. Using Runkel and McGrath’s (1972) “ThreeHorned Dilemma” model for traditional research methodologies as a base, we develop a framework that illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of these new tools. This article also provides a critical review of the literature that analyzes how these revolutionary data-collecting techniques are employed when examining theoretical development of e-business phenomenon.