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FROM INCUBATORS TO ECOSYSTEMS: EVALUATING THE STARTUP DIGITAL ECONOMY CLUSTER OF HULL CITY

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Grey and Willmott (2005) Draw attention to the issue of performativity in relation to the positivist critique and a broader critique of the idea of “objectivity” strongly linked to positivist approaches where “ethical and political questions are unacknowledged or assumed to be resolved” (2005:6). The problem for Grey and Willmott is that the findings of such research may, at first sight, appear neutral, but it is “a masquerade because it pays little attention to the nature of the ends to begin pursued and aided by the research” and “It follows that issues of fundamentally ethical and political character - such as the distribution of life, chances within and by corporations - are ignored” (2005:6). Also, the positivist “objective” view of research methodologies have been challenged at least on three main grounds (Gill and Johnson 2010: 13-14).

That there is no single method which generates scientific knowledge in all cases.
That what may be an appropriate method for researching the nature of physical world may be inappropriate in the social world given the inherent meaningfulness, and the subjective or cultural basis of all human behavior including management action.
That knowledge generated is not objective or neutral but is affected by among other things, the goals of managers and the presuppositions of researchers themselves.

Big data do not tell any story per se, humans choose the storytelling, and algorithms are not inherently neutral (Noble, S., 2016; Kraemer et al., 2010). According to Foord, another issue to point out aligned with ethical considerations of the present research project challenges “the veracity of economic and business data which is currently relied upon in policy analysis”. The author comment on how “This has failed to keep pace with the organizational/financial and cultural/creative classifications (…) This situation” he follows “has influenced our research approach in developing a bottom-up and networking method to capture small firms, their profiles, inter-relationships and innovation histories and trajectories, whilst contextualizing the research in the macro-level data and literature” (Foord 2012 in Evans, 2013:2).

DIGITAL RESEARCH ETHICS

From the association of internet researchers ethics guidelines

Protect the community that you are researching, especially if the community is in a situation of vulnerability
“Ethical decision-making is best approached through the application of practical judgment attentive to the specific context
Consideration of principles related to research on human subjects
Balance rights of subjects with the right of the researcher to conduct research because “in different context, the right of subjects may outweigh the benefits of research”
Researchers need to be ready to manage ethical issues arising throughout the research process, from planning to dissemination
Remember that ethical decision-making is a deliberative process. (Buchanan, 2012:4)

All data has been anonymised from companies in the business model analysis for consideration of principles related to research on human subjects.

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