Most Researchers identify the research problem first and coupled it with a research theory. However, doing this will have a cautionary effect for linking a problem to a theory is not the route to scientific utility nor enhance scientific evidence.
In addition, textbook would highly recommend that researchers must do first identify the problem, then from that, they can begin to design a study to perform and finally search for a conceptual framework in which they can start to conduct the study. Moreover, this method is done to enhance the theoretical context and add a meaningfulness of a study.