[1]Methodologies associated with positivism
-Experimental studies: An experimental study is a methodology used to investigate the relationship between variables, where the independent variables is deliberately manipulated to observe the effect on the dependent variable.
-Surveys: A survey is a methodology designed to collect primary or secondary data from a sample, with a view to generalizing the results to a population.
-Cross-sectional studies: A cross-sectional study is a methodology used to investigate variables or a group of subjects in different contexts over the same period of time.
-Longitudinal studies: A longitudinal study is a methodology used to investigate variables or a group of subjects over a long period of time.
-Benchmarking research: A process for rapidly learning the essence of a desired field of knowledge with an interest in finding its leading edge.
[2]Methodologies associated with interpretivism
-Hermeneutics: Hermeneutics is a methodology that focuses on the interpretation and understanding of text in the context of the underlying historical and social forces
-Ethnography: Ethnography is a methodology in which the researcher uses socially acquired and shared knowledge to understand the observed patterns of human activity.
-Participative inquiry: Participative inquiry is a methodology that involves the participants as fully as possible in the study, which is conducted in their own group or organization.
-Action research: Action research is a methodology used in applied research to find an effective way of bringing about a conscious change in a partly controlled environment.
-Case studies: A case study is methodology that is used to explore a single phenomenon(the case) in a natural setting using a variety of methods to obtain in-depth knowledge.
-Grounded theory: Grounded theory is a frame work in which there is joint collection, coding and analysis of data using a systematic set of procedures to develop an inductively derived theory.
-Feminist, gender and ethnicity studies: Feminist studies are a methodology used to investigate and seek understanding of phenomena from a feminist perspective.
[3]Triangulation and mixed methods:
-Triangulation is the use of multiple sources of data, different research methods and/or more than one researcher to investigate the same phenomenon in a study.