When trying to acquire quantitative empirical information, research is often framed in terms of an hypothesis . An hypothesis is a statement about what is likely to be true. It is like a bet or a wager. It is a predictive statement. Hypothesizing highlights the links between theory and research.
Good research can start anywhere on the wheel but it keeps moving around it.
You might first develop a theory and deduce from that particular facts which you would predict to be true. After collecting data to test the theory and see if those facts were indeed present, you would then try to generalize by engaging induction and moving from the facts to a general statement about that subject. This would give rise to further theoretical propositions about the topic, new questions, new hypotheses, more deductions, new tests, additional data, leading to inductively make more generalizations. For instance, you might theorize that child who have been abused are more likely than other children to grow up to abuse their own children. You might develop a survey and interview a sample of parents in treatment to see if they were abused as children and compare those results to what other parents interviewed say about their childhood experiences.