Guiding the Selection of Academic Research Methodologies in Applied Contexts of Industrial Institution Management

This paper guides on selecting appropriate research methodologies for addressing real-world challenges within industrial institutions. It emphasizes the importance of choosing a research strategy that aligns with the study’s objectives and effectively responds to questions that reflect the nature of the problem under investigation. Despite the growing relevance of applied research in industrial management, existing guidelines for selecting suitable methodologies in this domain remain limited. Accordingly, this paper aims to offer a structured framework for identifying and applying research methodologies that support successful collaboration between industry and academia. Through a comprehensive review of the literature, the study explores and clarifies foundational principles for conducting collaborative research, comparing methodological approaches using a set of evaluative criteria. This contribution enhances existing methodological discourse in industrial management by promoting more informed and impactful research practices. The literature review reveals that most published studies in industrial management tend to focus on specific technical functions or activities. Often, the rationale for selecting a particular methodology is either unclear or not explicitly stated. Comparative analysis of research approaches highlights both general similarities and distinct differences. The spectrum of methodologies ranges from data-intensive techniques requiring narrow domain expertise to case study designs that engage with a limited number of cases and rely on broad, interdisciplinary knowledge to analyze complex systems in depth. Attention to research design can significantly enhance the scientific and practical value of research outcomes. The findings suggest that the choice of research strategy should be driven by the primary objective of the study and its intended academic and industrial contributions. The paper concludes that while research methodologies serve diverse purposes, qualitative approaches, retrospective strategies, and case study designs are particularly well-suited to advancing academic inquiry and practical relevance in industrial management. Combining retrospective strategies with context-specific case study methods yields a robust and reliable framework capable of generating generalizable models for collaborative research between industrial and academic sectors.