Research: Widening the Conduct of Hospitality Inquiry: Toward Appreciating Research Alternatives

Abstract

If it is assumed that the situations of interest to hospitality researchers are phenomenologically complex as well as changeful, then it follows that a multiplicity of meanings can be imposed. Thus, for particular research projects a variety of paths for discovery and understanding may be equally viable. If this is so, an appreciation of alternative modes and means of inquiry is desirable if not requisite. This paper undertakes this task. The conduct of research is described as a generic sequence of activities shown to entail choices (and hence tradeoffs) among alternatives—usually with consequences for subsequent activity choices. The many decisions of what to do and how to do it are paralleled by choices about who might decide and who might do each activity. While the authors are sympathetic to the seemingly endless proliferation of models and theories, methodological strategies, designs and techniques, we argue that it may be unrealistic to think a small number or a one best set will suffice. Rather, if mainstream inquiry is restricting, then multi-stream inquiry may be a necessity. Appreciating the decision alternatives in research activities, thus, begins to widen the conduct of inquiry—allowing the richness of ways to do hospitality research to begin to reflect the richness of what is studied.