Raymond Hubbard is Professor Emeritus of Marketing at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, USA. He holds a B.Sc. (Econ) Hons degree from the University of London, England; an M.Sc. in Geography from the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica; and an M.A. in Economics and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He taught previously at SUNY Fredonia, New York; and held visiting positions at the University of Washington, Seattle, and at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research interests include applied methodology, and the sociology and history of knowledge development in the management and social sciences. He has published numerous articles on these topics in journals in these fields. He is a lifelong supporter of Sunderland A.F.C. and a Cornhusker fan since the early 1970s.
Addressing the immensely important topic of research credibility, Raymond Hubbard’s groundbreaking work proposes that we must treat such information with a healthy dose of skepticism. This book argues that the dominant model of knowledge procurement subscribed to in these areas—the significant difference paradigm—is philosophically suspect, methodologically impaired, and statistically broken. Hubbard introduces a more accurate, alternative framework—the significant sameness paradigm—for developing scientific knowledge. The majority of the book comprises a head-to-head comparison of the “significant difference” versus “significant sameness” conceptions of science across philosophical, methodological, and statistical perspectives.
