REQUIREMENTS FOR A NEW STUDY

As a business researcher with a keen research interest in entrepreneurial finance and sustainable investment, you have understood from the review of the extant literature that the environmental, social and governance $($ESG$)$ considerations that inform the investment decision$-$making of US$,$ UK and Europe$-$based venture capital and private equity firms are largely idiosyncratic, differing from firm to firm. Consequently, you are proposing an empirical investigation into how the ESG considerations of South African venture capital and private equity firms affect the performance of their investments. You have a privileged access to $30$ South African venture capital and private equity firms for purposes of data collection. With a quantitative approach in mind, you have formulated the following research questions:

$1.$ How idiosyncratic are the ESG considerations of South African venture capital and private equity firms?

$2.$ How do ESG considerations of South African venture capital and private equity firms affect the performance of the investments they select?

$3.$ What practical recommendations can be made to the management of South African venture capital and private equity firms on how best to leverage ESG considerations for improved investment performance?

$1\mathrm{.}4.$Critically discuss the ontological and epistemological considerations for the proposed study based on the choice of a

quantitative approach for the study. $(6$ marks$)$

Briefly discussed the nature of the research questions, stating whether they are broadly qualitative or quantitative in nature.

Discuss the concept on ontology and the ontological considerations for the proposed study, highlighting how the researcher views ESG issues and investment performance as either objective realities and regularities that can be observed, measured, and verified objectively or subjective realities that have to be constructed.

Discuss the concept on epistemology and the epistemological considerations for the proposed study and the implications.