Introduction

Usually, the learning objective of FPS projects in a bachelor course programme in business or management is just to develop the core competence of the business or management alumnus, namely knowledge-intensive field problem solving. However, for graduate course programmes, the learning objectives of carrying out such projects usually also include adding to the generic knowledge base of the field, just as students in medicine or engineering learn to solve their field problems but also learn how to add to the generic knowledge base of their fields.

The nature and objectives of the fieldwork for graduate students in business or management, and the approaches chosen to develop generic theory, depend on the vision of the school and the supervisors in question on the nature of their academic discipline and on the research paradigm associated with this vision. Most people regard the business school as a professional school, like medical schools, engineering schools and law schools. This can imply that, in research, the typical research paradigm of a professional school is used, which is, as is discussed in the next section, the design science paradigm. If so, fieldwork in the form of problem solving projects – the subject matter of this book – is an obvious choice. However, business and management as academic disciplines can also be regarded as social sciences, like sociology, anthropology and political science, in which case research is, rather, based on the explanatory paradigm, the mainstream research paradigm in these disciplines. If so, students may be asked to do their fieldwork in the form of a survey or to carry out in-depth interviews in order to contribute to theory development.