New Directions and Challenges of Social Sciences - Assignment Example

New Directions and Challenges of Social SciencesBernstein highlights several factors that undermine the progress of social sciences. He identifies underfunding in research as one of the biggest setback in social sciences. Since critiques argue that soft sciences are less legitimate, governments and stakeholders in research institutions, tend to snub the social sciences as far as funding is concerned (Bernstein, 1983). The justification for underfunding is that, although social sciences often study less complex phenomena when compared to hard sciences, their findings are more likely to intersect with the daily life experiences and as such, they are insignificant or obvious.

The fact that it has been labeled soft science can affect the perceived value of the discipline as well as the amount of funding available to it (Bernstein, 1983). A perfect example is during the late 2000s recessions where social science disproportionately cut from funding compared to mathematics and natural science, which was never touched. Numerous proposals were made for the National Science Foundation to cease funding all social sciences since they make no impact to development.Secondly, social sciences progress are considered nonlinear because many new ideas have lead to revolutions while others have had lengthy gestation periods and ultimately met a protracted resistance (Bernstein, 1983).

Furthermore, other new ideas have attained overly rapid and faddish acceptance that is usually followed by a quick dismissal. Bernstein further asserts that an earlier generation of research in retail management documented a myriad of characteristics attached to scientific progress, but it was never followed by trans-disciplinary studies that tested and developed the general theories that cropped out. Additionally, social sciences such as retail management deal with people. As such, it becomes difficult in isolating all the variables that may influence the outcome of any social science research.

In fact, controlling the variable may even alter the results thus it is hard to devise an experiment in any a soft science.Question twoThe last two decades, the science of retail management has indeed gained relevance and developed wealth of instruments. Of great importance are the techniques that are used in carrying out an objective research. In spite of using research as a tool of finding answers to business problems, there still one big challenge: explicit assumptions. Most of these tacit assumptions undermine research more so, in retail management (Collins, 2001).

In retail management, time to market is the duration of time a product takes from the time it is conceived to the time it is available for sale. Time to market is very crucial any business where products are outmoded quickly. There is a common assumption that Time to Market only matters to first of a kind products (Collins, 2001). When closely analyzed, this assumption can be misleading thus undermining research in retail management. It is evident that even the leading products in the market also need to be considered when Time to Market comes to play.

This means that all products need the same attention when it comes to marketing. Another major assumption that undermines research in retail management is that Industry winners always manufacture in-house therefore we should manufacture in-house. With this kind of assumption, opportunities to collaborate with other partners in the industry are never explored. When an organization does not out-source, it incurs much costs since some resources are needed occasionally. Additionally, migration into new areas of the value- chain is avoided.

When an organization outsources, it is bound to new ideas and find solutions to the ever-challenging business world.ReferencesBernstein, R. (1983). Beyond objectivism and relativism: Science, hermeneutics, and praxis. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap…and others do not. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.