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'No Guru, No Method, No Teacher'

This paper is based on my experience as a doctoral student at the Manchester Business School. In many such institutions, research tends to be based on a positivist epistemology. Using two examples from the literature, I suggest that use of the 'scientific method' may not be appropriate for natural science and, therefore, may be even more problematic for social science. Nevertheless, researchers in business and management schools may find that they are encouraged to adopt methodologies with which they are uneasy. In the later sections of the paper I describe the difficulties I faced in developing an adequate theoretical and methodological structure for my own PhD. The paper warns of the dangers inherent in selecting theories 'off-the-shelf and encourages those engaged in doctoral research to return to first principles in developing their own conceptual frameworks.