Why is exploratory research conducted

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. There are two ways in which research can be conducted namely primary and secondary.. Under these two types, there are multiple methods which can used by a researcher.

The data gathered from these research can be qualitative or quantitative. Some of the most widely used research designs include the following:. Primary research is information gathered directly from the subject. It can be through a group of people or even an individual. Such a research can be carried out directly by the researcher himself or can employ a third party to conduct it on their behalf.

Primary research is specifically carried out to explore a certain problem which requires an in-depth study. For example: A survey is sent to a given set of audience to understand their opinions about the size of mobile phones when they purchase one.

Based on such information organization can dig deeper into the topic and make business related decision. For example: An interview with an employee can give you more insights to find out the degree of job satisfaction, or an interview with a subject matter expert of quantum theory can give you in-depth information on that topic. For example: A focus group helps a research identify the opinions of consumers if they were to buy a phone.

Such a research can help the researcher understand what the consumer value while buying a phone. It may be screen size, brand value or even the dimensions. Based on which the organization can understand what are consumer buying attitudes, consumer opinions, etc. It is conducted to have a better understanding of the existing problem, but will not provide conclusive results.

Now that we have established the core meaning and function of exploratory research, it is critical to understand its makeup. This form of research has various qualities researchers ought to look into, to better understand its characteristics.

The following enumerates the key features of this research:. Businesses need exploratory research for a variety of reasons. It sets the foundation for understanding a problem, occurrence or phenomenon by finding its basic properties. This ensures that a business finds the right information such as the variables which can be further studied in descriptive, correlational and experimental research.

Although it rarely provides enough insights to make conclusive business decisions, it f orms the basis of a research issue on which businesses can set up objectives and requirements for continual studies. After all, a company cannot conduct further research around a topic, without assuredly knowing about its existence and certain characteristics that warrant further exploration.

Exploratory research differs significantly from the other main types of research methods such as correlational research and experimental research. However, exploratory research is often conflated with descriptive research. Although both forms of research are conducted in the early stages of the entire research process, they are not the same , as they bear key differing qualities.

Exploratory research provides the foundation, hypothesis or discovery about a problem the researcher suspects is present. Thus, it is the very first form of research required to conduct over an unstudied or unknown topic. Descriptive research, on the other hand, is predicated on describing something already established, discovered or suspected in exploratory research.

Thus descriptive research follows exploratory research in the overall research process. It describes characteristics, functions, occurrences, frequencies and other required key facts before the researcher moves to correlational or experimental research. Descriptive research, as opposed to exploratory research, is conclusive. It is predominantly quantitative and fixed on creating statistics. It is also rigid and structured, while exploratory research is flexible and unstructured.

Correlational research differs from exploratory research in that it is one of the latter forms or research , whereas exploratory is the most preliminary kind. It processes well-established information that exploratory and descriptive research have found. Its primary function is to uncover relationships among variables to see how one may affect another or others. The results of correlational research can be used to make predictions of future events from present insights.

Experimental research contrasts with exploratory research, in that it is also one of the latter forms of research, if not the very final. Unlike exploratory research, experimental research is far less observational or passive.

Exploratory Research. Voxco's Guide to Exploratory Research. Conducting exploratory research seems tricky but an effective guide can help. Download Now. Share on facebook. Share on twitter.

Share on linkedin. Table of Contents. Exploratory Research Guide. What are the characteristics of exploratory research? They are not structured in nature.

Exploratory research is interactive, open ended and is usually easy on the budget of the organisation. It helps researchers uncover answers to questions such as; what is the problem being studied? What is the need for this study? What topics should be included in the study? It is time consuming and thus requires patience and persistence on the part of the researcher.

Exploratory research is broad, flexible, and adaptive in nature. The researcher needs to go through all the information and data collected through the research. Exploratory research needs to have an important cost or value, if not, then it is ineffective to carry out the research.

The researcher should have some theories that will help in supporting the findings uncovered during the exploratory research. Exploratory research generally produces qualitative data. In certain cases, where the sample of the study is large and data is collected through surveys and experimentation, explorative research can be quantitative.

Start Conducting Exploratory Research with Voxco. Download Market Research Toolkit. Primary Research Methods: In primary research, the information is collected directly from the respondents. Surveys: Surveys or polls can be used to gather large amounts of data, usually from a predetermined group of respondents.

Access Our Expertly written Survey Templates. Focus Groups: Another widely used methodology in exploratory research are focus groups.

Observation: Observational research can either be quantitative or qualitative. Start Creating Research Panels Now. Interviews: Surveys give you huge amounts of information in a relatively short period of time, but an interview with one person can give you the in-depth information which can otherwise be overlooked in surveys.