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Unit 3: Research Design
3.1.2 Types of Research Design Notes
Exploratory, descriptive and causal research are some of the major types. Exploratory research
is used to seek insights into general nature of the problem. It provides the relevant variable that
need to be considered. In this type of research, there is no previous knowledge, research methods
are flexible, qualitative and unstructured. The researcher in this method does not know "what he
will find".
Descriptive research is a type of research, very widely used in marketing research. Generally in
descriptive study there will be a hypothesis, with respect to this hypothesis, we ask questions
like size, distribution, etc.
Causal research, this type of research is concerned with finding cause and effect relationship.
Normally experiments are conducted in this type of research.
Self Assessment
Fill in the blanks:
1. ........................... research is used to seek insights into general nature of the problem.
2. Research design helps to plan in advance the methods and techniques to be used for
collecting and ………………..data.
3.2 Exploratory Research
The major emphasis in exploratory research is on converting broad, vague problem statements
into small, precise sub-problem statements, which is done in order to formulate specific
hypothesis. The hypothesis is a statement that specifies, "how two or more variables are related?"
In the early stages of research, we usually lack from sufficient understanding of the problem to
formulate a specific hypothesis. Further, there are often several tentative explanations.
Example: "Sales are down because our prices are too high",
"our dealers or sales representatives are not doing a good job",
"our advertisement is weak" and so on.
In this scenario, very little information is available to point out, what is the actual cause of the
problem. We can say that the major purpose of exploratory research is to identify the problem
more specifically. Therefore, exploratory study is used in the initial stages of research.
Under what circumstances is exploratory study ideal?
The following are the circumstances in which exploratory study would be ideally suited:
1. To gain an insight into the problem
2. To generate new product ideas
3. To list all possibilities. Among the several possibilities, we need to prioritize the
possibilities which seem likely
4. To develop hypothesis occasionally
Did u know? Exploratory study is also used to increase the analyst's familiarity with the
problem. This is particularly true, when the analyst is new to the problem area.
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