Conceptualising the Philosophical Underpinning of the Study: A Practical Perspective

This paper sought to develop a literature review-based framework for fitting research projects into philosophies of research. The philosophical underpinning of the study to optimize the financial performance of pension funds through asset allocation and portfolio management decisions was used as a case in point. The paper argues that all knowledge generation processes should be deeply rooted in philosophy if they are to produce reliable solutions to research problems. The study established that the research approaches and the science of doing research need to be informed by the philosophical positions of reality, knowledge, logic and ethical stance of the researcher. It is also noted that the philosophical positions of the researcher should be derived from the objective or subjective nature of the variables in the research problem. In relation to optimizing the financial performance of pension funds, the study concluded that pragmatism is the most appropriate guiding philosophy for determining the ontological, epistemological, axiological and methodological positions of the researcher. It is also concluded that the mixed method research paradigm, implemented through the explanatory sequential design is a better approach to comprehensively understand the subject matter since pension fund financial performance is a function of both subjective and objective factors.