Research philosophy
Research philosophy lay down the background of how researchers understand the world, the choice of research philosophy reflect our knowledge, experiences, preconceptions, and research capability. Thus our knowledge, experiences and etc., which underpin the philosophy choice, will determine our research paradigm, strategy, design and method. (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 128-129).
When Bryman describes ontology view, he introduces the objectivism and constructivism as two antithetical dimensions. (p22) However, Saunders 2009 p.119 advocates that positivism can be understood through both ontology and epistemology views. It raises the confusion whether positivism should belong to ontology view and be connected to objectivism like what Bryman said, or positivism should not be tied to objectivism and can also be comprehended through epistemology view like what Saunders proposed. In 2014, Hanson stated that the root of positivism could be constructive instead of being tied only to objectivism. This makes us realize that our thesis might not be limited to the view of Bryman. When we discuss the positivism, we are set to think both in epistemological way and ontological way and then we will distinguish our philosophical choice of view with realism. We will also generally discuss our philosophical choice with the popular business philosophical paradigm.

Positivism
In Saunders’ view and Weber’s view, positivism can be studied from both epistemology and ontology