24-07-2012, 10:57 AM
Exploratory Research
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As the term suggests, exploratory research is often conducted because a problem has not been clearly defined as yet, or its real scope is as yet unclear. It allows the researcher to familiarize him/herself with the problem or concept to be studied, and perhaps generate hypotheses (definition of hypothesis) to be tested. It is the initial research, before more conclusive research (definition of conclusive research) is undertaken. Exploratory research helps determine the best research design, data collection method and selection of subjects, and sometimes it even concludes that the problem does not exist!
Another common reason for conducting exploratory research is to test concepts before they are put in the marketplace, always a very costly endeavour. In concept testing, consumers are provided either with a written concept or a prototype for a new, revised or repositioned product, service or strategy.
Exploratory Market Research
The exploratory approach attempts to discover general information about a topic that is not well understood by the marketer. For instance, a marketer has heard news reports about a new Internet technology that is helping competitors but the marketer is not familiar with the technology and needs to do research to learn more. When gaining insight (i.e., discovery) on an issue is the primary goal, exploratory research is used.
The basic difference between exploratory and descriptive research is the research design. Exploratory research follows a format that is less structured and more flexible than descriptive research. This approach works well when the marketer doesn’t have an understanding of the topic or the topic is new and it is hard to pinpoint the research direction. The downside, however, is that results may not be as useful in aiding a marketing decision. So why use this method? In addition to offering the marketer basic information on a topic, exploratory research may also provide direction for a more formal research effort. For instance, exploratory research may indicate who the key decision makers are in a particular market thus enabling a more structured descriptive study targeted to this group.
Data Collection
The second part of research design involves laying out a plan to collect the information within the research method selected. To gather research marketers have three choices:
• acquire pre-existing research
• undertake new research themselves
• out-source the task of new research to a third-party, such as a market research company
The first option is associated with Secondary Research, which involves accessing information that was previously collected. The last two options are associated with conducting Primary Research, which involves the collection of original data generally for one’s own use.
Evaluate Data
The researcher’s next task is to make sense of the collected data. Before the researcher can gain understanding from the collected data, he/she must first examine the raw information (i.e., what was actually collected) to make sure the information exists as required. There are many reasons why data may not be presented in the form needed for further analysis. Some of reasons include:
• Incomplete Responses – This most likely occurs when the method of data collection (e.g., survey) is not fully completed, such as when the person taking part in the research fails to provide all information (e.g., skips questions).
• Data Entry Error – This exists when the information is not recorded properly which can occur due to the wrong entry being made (e.g., entry should be choice “B” but is entered as choice “C”) or failure of data entry technology (e.g., online connection is disrupted before full completion of survey).
• Questionable Entry – This occurs when there are apparent inconsistencies in responses such as when a respondent does not appear to be answering honestly.
To address these issues the researcher will take steps to “cleanse” the data which may include dropping problematic data either in part (e.g., exclude a single question) or in full (e.g., drop an entire survey). Alternatively, the research may be able to salvage some problem data with certain coding methods, though a discussion of these is beyond the scope of this tutorial.
Analyze Data
With the data in a form that is now useful, the researcher can begin the process of analyzing the data to determine what has been learned. The method used to analyze data depends on the approach used to collect the information (secondary research, primary quantitative research or primary qualitative research). For primary research the selection of method of analysis also depends on the type of research instrument used to collect the information.
Essentially there are two types of methods of analysis – descriptive and inferential.
Descriptive Data Analysis
Not to be confused with descriptive research, descriptive analysis, as the name implies, is used to describe the results obtained. In most cases the results are merely used to provide a summary of what has been gathered (e.g., how many liked or dislike a product) without making a statement of whether the results hold up to statistical evaluation. For quantitative data collection the most common methods used for this basic level of analysis are visual representations, such as charts and tables, and measures of central tendency including averages (i.e., mean value). For qualitative data collection, where analysis may consist of the researcher’s own interpretation of what was learned, the information may be coded or summarized into grouping categories.
Inferential Data Analysis.