Adopted Research Designs by Tourism and Hospitality Postgraduates in The Light of Research Onion

Abstract

Background: Research design is the explicit techniques used to identify, choice, process, and analyze data about a research topic. All researchers must adopt and justify a specific research design and methodology. Aim: This study aims to explore the adopted methodologies by tourism and hospitality postgraduates, in order to shed the light on the importance of teaching a comprehensive research methods modules for postgraduates. Methodology: A qualitative research design based on an interpretivist philosophical worldview was adopted to analyze the methodological contents of tourism and hotel-related theses (N=188) undertaken at Fayoum University. Findings: While most theses (94.2%) did not consider/refer explicitly or implicitly to the adopted philosophy, only 5.8% (n=11) of them mentioned their philosophy, including Positivism and pragmatism. In addition, 100% of the theses adopted the cross-sectional as a time horizon while data collection. Implications: The findings of this study may be valuable for teaching comprehensive and effective modules on research methods for tourism and hospitality postgraduates. Limitations: This study was limited to theses conducted at the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Fayoum University. The future research may extend the sampling process to include a wider range of the postgraduates' theses.