TYPES OF RESEARCH

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is defined as a market research method that focuses on obtaining data
through open-ended and conversational communication.

This method is not only about “what” people think but also “why” they think so. For example,
consider a convenience store looking to improve its patronage. A systematic observation
concludes that the number of men visiting this store are more. One good method to determine
why women were not visiting the store is to conduct an in-depth interview of potential
customers in the category.

On successfully interviewing female customers, visiting the nearby stores and malls, and
selecting them through random sampling, it was known that the store doesn’t have enough
items for women and so there were fewer women visiting the store, which was understood
only by personally interacting with them and understanding why they didn’t visit the store,
because there were more male products than female ones.

Therefore, the qualitative research methods allow for in-depth and further probing and
questioning of respondents based on their responses, where the interviewer/researcher also
tries to understand their motivation and feelings

Characteristics:
1. Qualitative research methods usually collect data at the sight, where the participants are
experiencing issues or problems. These are real-time data and rarely bring the participants out
of the geographic locations to collect information.

2. Qualitative researchers typically gather multiple forms of data, such as interviews,

observations, and documents, rather than rely on a single data source.

3. This type of research method works towards solving complex issues by breaking down into
meaningful inferences,that is easily readable and understood by all.

4. Since its a more communicative method, people can build their trust on the researcher and
the information thus obtained is raw and unadulterated.
 Quantitative Research Definition:

Quantitative research, is defined as a the systematic investigation of phenomena by gathering

quantifiable data and performing statistical, mathematical or computational
techniques. Quantitative research gathers information from existing and potential customers
using sampling methods and sending out online surveys, online polls, questionnaires etc., the
results of which can be depicted in the form of numericals. After careful understanding of these
numbers to predict the future of a product or service and make changes accordingly.

An example of quantitative research is, the survey conducted to understand the amount of
time a doctor takes to tend to a patient when the patient walks into the hospital. A patient
satisfaction survey template can be administered to ask questions like how much time did a
doctor take to see a patient, how often does the patient walk into a hospital and other such
questions.

Quantitative research is mostly conducted in social sciences using the statistical methods used
above to collect quantitative data from the research study. In this research method,
researchers and statisticians deploy mathematical frameworks and theories that pertain to the
quantity under question.

Quantitative research templates are objective, elaborate and many a times, are investigational
in nature. The results achieved from this research method are logical, statistical and
unbiased. Data collection happens using a structured method and conducted on larger samples
which represent the entire population.

Characteristics:
 Structured tools: Structured tools such as surveys, polls or questionnaires are used to gather
quantitative data. Using such structure methods helps in collecting in-depth and actionable
data from the survey respondents.
 Sample size: Quantitative research is conducted on a significant sample size that represents
the target market. Appropriate sampling methods have to be used when deriving the sample
so as to fortify the research objective
 Close-ended questions: Closed-ended questions are created in accordance with the objective
of research. These questions help collect quantitative data and hence are extensively used in
quantitative research.
 Prior studies: Various factors related to the research topic are studied before collecting
feedback from respondents.
 Quantitative data: Usually, quantitative data is represented by tables, charts, graphs or any
other non-numerical form. This makes it easy to understand the data that has been collected
as well as prove the validity of the market research.
 Generalization of results: Results of this research method can be generalized to an entire
population to take appropriate actions for improvement.

Experimental Research:
Experimental research is any research conducted with a scientific approach, where a set of
variables are kept constant while the other set of variables are being measured as the subject
of experiment.

The simplest example of an experimental research is conducting a laboratory test. As long as

research is being conducted under scientifically acceptable conditions – it qualifies as an
experimental research. A true experimental research is considered to be successful only when
the researcher confirms that a change in the dependent variable is solely due to the
manipulation of the independent variable.

It is important for an experimental research to establish cause and effect of a phenomenon,

which means, it should be definite that effects observed from an experiment are due to the
cause. As naturally, occurring event can be confusing for researchers to establish conclusions.
For instance, if a cardiology student conducts research to understand the effect of food on
cholesterol and derives that most heart patients are non-vegetarians or have diabetes. They are
aspects (causes) which can result in a heart attack (effect).

Characteristics:
 Researchers have a stronger hold over variables to obtain desired results.
 Subject or industry is not a criterion for experimental research due to which any industry can
implement it for research purposes.
 Results are extremely specific.
 Once the results are analyzed, they can be applied to various other similar aspects.
 Cause and effect of a hypothesis can be derived so that researchers can analyze greater
details.
 Experimental research can be used in association with other research methods.

Exploratory Research
Exploratory research, as the name implies, intends merely to explore the research questions
and does not intend to offer final and conclusive solutions to existing problems. This type of
research is usually conducted to study a problem that has not been clearly defined yet.
Conducted in order to determine the nature of the problem, exploratory research is not
intended to provide conclusive evidence, but helps us to have a better understanding of the
problem. When conducting exploratory research, the researcher ought to be willing to change
his/her direction as a result of revelation of new data and new insights.[1]
 Exploratory research design does not aim to provide the final and conclusive answers to the
research questions, but merely explores the research topic with varying levels of depth. It has
been noted that “exploratory research is the initial research, which forms the basis of more
conclusive research. It can even help in determining the research design, sampling
methodology and data collection method”[2]. Exploratory research “tends to tackle new
problems on which little or no previous research has been done”[3]. Unstructured interviews
are the most popular primary data collection method with exploratory studies.

Characteristics:

1. Flexibility and adaptability to change

2. Exploratory research is effective in laying the groundwork that will lead to future
studies.
3. Exploratory studies can potentially save time and other resources by determining at the
earlier stages the types of research that are worth pursuing