What is exploratory research? research methodology

In this tutorial, we will try to learn the following topics;

What is exploratory research?
What are examples of exploratory research?
What is the purpose of exploratory research?
How the researcher can get information for better exploratory research?
What are the methods of exploratory research?

What is exploratory research?

A small amount of information is available about the topic but if you want to explore it in details for better understanding of the problem and its solution.

Exploratory research investigates a problem that is undefined and not studied thoroughly in the past. The purpose of this research is to understand the existing problem but we can’t reach findings in this research.

Characteristics of exploratory research

Following are the characteristics of exploratory research:

Exploratory research is low-cost, interactive, inexpensive, and open-ended.
In most cases, it deals with qualitative data.
Exploratory research is time-consuming and needs patience.
There are no hard and fast rules for the research process.

Methods of exploratory research

There are two ways of collecting data in exploratory research:

Primary research

In primary research, data is assembled from primary sources. The researcher collects primary data through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observation.

Secondary research

In secondary research, data is collected from primary research that is preexisted like surveys or experiments, online research, case studies, interviews, social media, books, magazines, and literature reviews.

Hybrid Research

Hybrid Research is a combination of primary and secondary research.

How to conduct exploratory research

Identify the problem

This is the foremost step for every research to identify the problem for which we are going to do our research. The researcher answers the “what question” while identifying the problem. For example, when he investigates anything, he first needs to know what happened.

Create a hypothesis

After identifying the problem, the researcher finds the solution. The researcher checks previous investigations regarding the concerned problem. If he doesn’t find any prior investigations, he makes a hypothesis based on different questions that were created while identifying the problem.

Design your methodology

Now the researcher will design his methodology of research. He has to make a format for research in which he will write how to collect and analyze data.

Collect and analyze data

It’s time to collect data from different sources and analyze it whether it meets with the hypothesis or not. If it doesn’t meet, you can change your hypothesis according to your findings.

Further research

Now the researcher conducts a further investigation and starts collecting relevant data by using qualitative methods including surveys, interviews, online sources, etc. After collecting data, the researcher investigates the problem.

What are examples of exploratory research?

A mobile network company explores the mobile user data for better understanding of the results of the different call packages that which call package is most successful among all packages.

What is the purpose of exploratory research?

To refine and understand the problem
To know the basic facts
To generate a new idea
To develop the theories

How the researcher can get information for better exploratory research?

The researcher can use the difference information resources for better exploratory research. Some of these are;

Case studies
Pilot studies
Surveys
Secondary data analysis
Reviews
Focus Groups

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Topic Covered

What is exploratory research? research methodology