Dear Diogo

Even if the literature show that there are mixed results, the literature will generally tend to have more studies that show support for the null hypothesis (theoretical expectation), and fewer studies that show support for the alternative hypothesis.

Normally, you should be happy if your findings support the null hypothesis. The fact that you don't feel too happy suggests to me that you already had an answer you were expecting to find even before you started the research you are doing. Going forward, if you find conflicting results, this may be good for you if that was the result you were expecting to find, but then you MUST intelligently give a strong explanation as to why the result is different from the null hypothesis(i.e. the theoretical expectation). This is the hard bit. Why? Because top experts in your field (who may possibly review your results) are possibly strong believers in that theory, and you'll need to do a lot of work to convince them to see where the conflicting result is coming from.

Also, the argument that '...companies forge data..." is a weak claim, and elite (top) scholars in your field might not accept this idea because you cannot prove how companies forged the data you claim they did. As academic researchers, our job is to make sense of the data that is available to us while it is the role of auditors/assurance/compliance officers to ensure that company data is correct, and to ensure that companies do not forge their data. For this reason, I think you should find another/better explanation for the conflicting result you have, if you wish to go ahead with the study.     

The way you feel about the conflicting result is not new to many researchers because we know that it is generally difficult for top journals to accept findings with conflicting evidence unless the author provides a strong justification to explain why you think you found conflicting evidence.

Even if you are writing this project for a Bsc/Msc/Phd project, you should put in good effort to explain the conflicting findings, and your explanation should be based on the existing theories, literature or empirical evidence.

Go on with the study, don't give up on it!

Regards

Peterson

Dear Diogo

Even if the literature show that there are mixed results, the literature will generally tend to have more studies that show support for the null hypothesis (theoretical expectation), and fewer studies that show support for the alternative hypothesis.

Normally, you should be happy if your findings support the null hypothesis. The fact that you don't feel too happy suggests to me that you already had an answer you were expecting to find even before you started the research you are doing. Going forward, if you find conflicting results, this may be good for you if that was the result you were expecting to find, but then you MUST intelligently give a strong explanation as to why the result is different from the null hypothesis(i.e. the theoretical expectation). This is the hard bit. Why? Because top experts in your field (who may possibly review your results) are possibly strong believers in that theory, and you'll need to do a lot of work to convince them to see where the conflicting result is coming from.

Also, the argument that '...companies forge data..." is a weak claim, and elite (top) scholars in your field might not accept this idea because you cannot prove how companies forged the data you claim they did. As academic researchers, our job is to make sense of the data that is available to us while it is the role of auditors/assurance/compliance officers to ensure that company data is correct, and to ensure that companies do not forge their data. For this reason, I think you should find another/better explanation for the conflicting result you have, if you wish to go ahead with the study.     

The way you feel about the conflicting result is not new to many researchers because we know that it is generally difficult for top journals to accept findings with conflicting evidence unless the author provides a strong justification to explain why you think you found conflicting evidence.

Even if you are writing this project for a Bsc/Msc/Phd project, you should put in good effort to explain the conflicting findings, and your explanation should be based on the existing theories, literature or empirical evidence.

Go on with the study, don't give up on it!

Regards

Peterson

Hello Peterson,

Now that you mention it, I can see that I will just have to work harder to justify my contradictory results if I want to publish in a nice journal. 

That was extremely clarifying and encouraging at the same time, I wasn't expecting such a good answer. Thank you very much.

Best,

Diogo

When the research follow the correct design with adequate and appropriate literature review, then the outcome result is trusted. 

On the otherhand, if every research is confident about the result, then no need for doing research.

Dear Peterson

The Researcher put the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis of his research in the first step, then he will perform his study to test his hypothesis , so he did not know the result from the beginning , and the result of the testing hypothesis is important for the researcher and scientific comunity in both cases of accepting or rejecting the null hypothesis.

Good luck