Employing the participative paradigm as a valid empirical approach to gaining a greater understanding of contemporary supply chain and distribution management issues

Purpose – Social scientists have developed a number of ontological paradigms, including realism to describe their own perspective of the worldview under investigation where each is linked to an epistemology that deals with how the world is perceived and the relationship between the researcher and the known view. This paper aims to propose the use of a Participative phemenological paradigm in qualitative research for an empirical inquiry to compare developed theory to practise. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the epistemological belief elements of deductive, inductive and abductive paradigms applied to supply chain and distribution management research. It develops the participative approach, derived from realism as a valid methodology for gaining a greater understanding of the applied management subject area. Findings – This paper addresses the validity of the participative paradigm in phemenological social science research, suggesting it is a valid and rigorous research activity to gain greater knowledge and understanding in these subject areas. Practical implications – Contemporary global supply chain and distribution management issues have been addressed from a detailed understanding and comprehension of the dynamic and responsive fashion textiles sector. The participative paradigm, which sees human beings as co‐creating their reality through participation such as their experience, imagination, intuition, thinking and action can contribute to a better understanding of influencing factors. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the development of qualitative research in supply chain and distribution management. It has extended the theory‐based epistemological discussion to gain validity of this adopted approach.