The research must demonstrate an understanding of existing knowledge.  Of course the question is – which areas of existing knowledge?  We can make things far easier for ourselves by being very clear and focused about which existing knowledge we are building on.  The critical question for a doctoral thesis is that it is able to make a contribution to the field.  The positioning question is where have you contributed to our understanding?

Whilst we may have grand aspirations to contribute to management or business performance we need to be far more specific in order to convince others that we have really done so.  The coherence of the argument raises two further important positioning issues: i) what is the nature of the argument you are making, for example are you arguing that there has been little prior research in this area, or are you arguing that ideas from one domain are of value to another domain? ii) Who are you arguing with? 

This is perhaps the most important question and one which we shall review shortly in terms of a useful metaphor – the conversation.  The central question for a doctorate of original contribution in order to demonstrate what you have added you need to be precise about the domains that your are adding to.  If this is unclear then it is impossible to establish an original contribution from your work.  Finally the implications of the research have to be related to domains of knowledge, what do we now know about the strategy of firms following Michael Porter’s work on generic strategies (1980)?  What do we now know about decision making following Kahneman & Tversky’s development of prospect theory (1974)?

All of these issues underline the value and importance of positioning in any form of research, but this is an absolute necessity at the doctoral and masters level.

 

The text on this page is reproduced with permission from Professor Mark Jenkins, Cranfield School of Management.  The ideas are based on teaching sessions with PhD and DBA students at Cranfield School of Management, and draws from ideas on writing developed by Anne Huff.