Research Gap is not the best way to select Ph.D. topics





The enrolment number of PhDs in every university in India is growing by factor ever since Ph.D. has become a requirement for teaching in higher learning. It is a universal standard practice in writing a research proposal - to conduct the literature survey, find the research gap, and justify your work as a novel one as it fills the gap. Thus it adds to the body of knowledge, particularly in the management field, where I have the experience. But the point is, should we continue this practice. The hypothesis that I am proposing is:  as a result of this practice, we have numerous Ph.D. thesis which coming out with so-called theories that are not rigorously tested. The matter is so alarming that UGC has decided to assess the PhDs submitted over the last 10 years. UGC's notification that allows Ph.D. holders from foreign varsities is eligible for direct recruitment as assistant professor clearly shows the confidence level of the regulating authorities on the quality of the PhDs in Indian varsities. Milford and Rosenthal1 have rightly said, “Only in making this demand, declaring nothing sacred, can we hope to encourage marketers to question the most ensconced ideas on which we ground some of our basic marketing paradigms and understandings. All sciences have made great strides and tend to continue developing, though often by small steps, using this approach.” By encouraging the research gap approach, we are not developing the “pragmatic skepticism” among the research scholars. In other words, we do not build knowledge based on past theories in management.
Nevertheless, it is very much required. Searching in Google with a keyword, “number of Ph.D. in TQM" gives 33,90,000 results, and the "number of Ph.D. in six sigma” gives 2,13,00,000. I do agree that these numbers do not indicate the number Ph.D., but it is safe to assume that significant numbers of Ph.D. have gone out of the system on these topics worldwide. This happens, as even in academics, we don't question on what basis these paradigms have been proposed.
It maybe noted that management science is full of management fads. There is no evidence in favor of six sigma's impact on a firm's performance. There is a website: www.sixsigmafails.com, which gives enough examples, where six sigma claims are false. Similar is the case with TQM and Business excellence. Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, which is the first business excellence model designed to encourage US manufacturing organizations to excel, today it has no takers from the intended sectors of the economy. No manufacturing unit participates in the scheme except one or two SMEs in the USA! 
Even unquestionable theories in management like Maslow’s Hierarchy, Hawthorne effect do not have strong evidence in support of these theories. Forbes has published a couple of articles on 360 Deg feedback titled " 360 Degree Feedback Is Idiotic”, “

The Horrible Truth About 360-Degree Feedback”.

 

It is high time to come out with the "finding the Gap' syndrome and encourage scholars to creative skepticism and find the truth of earlier theories or do add to build knowledge on the existing knowledge. Through this approach, only we may have time tested theories in management, and we can contribute meaningfully to the body of knowledge. Such examples are in plenty in the field of medicine- take the example of the relation between eating eggs and cholesterol level, taking hypertension medicines in the morning instead of evening, the role of antibiotics in case of bronchitis. In all these cases, the researchers challenged the existing scientific beliefs. For this to happen in the management field, the Ph.D. supervisors and the Ph.D. approval committee members of our universities should change their mindset first.  Let us remember Isaac Newton's quote, "If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”

Just at the time of uploading this document I had a chance interaction with an article, Effects of Change Interventions: What Kind of Evidence Do We Really Have?
Eric Barends, Barbara Janssen and Wouter ten Have, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science , 2014, Vol 50 (1), 5-27, which has expressed the need for replication studies in the field of social research.
Prabir Kumar Bandyopadhyay
Professor, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune
Views are personal
1.     Soper, B., Milford, G. E., & Rosenthal, G. T. (1995). Belief when evidence does not support the theory. Psychology and Marketing, 12(5), 415–422.

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