Basics of Qualitative Research
Businesses use research for a variety of reasons to grow and improve their organizations. Product development and marketing are two functional areas where research is most prevalent, though many departments in companies perform some types of research activities. Two basic types of research are quantitative, which is statistically based, and qualitative, which includes thoughts, feelings, and opinions, which are more open for interpretation.
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Basics
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Qualitative research is generally described as research that helps you to understand how and why people feel the way they do, according to Market Research World. Whereas quantitative research intends to create results that are easy to measure and turn into usable data, qualitative research is intended to drive open responses that offer broader insights into the feelings of the research subjects. Many research studies performed by companies use both types to get a sense of reliability in results.
Conducting Qualitative Research
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Some qualitative research involves creating surveys that ask for feedback in the form of responses to questions. For instance, you may ask a consumer to describe his feelings about your brand and to explain why he feels that way. Market Research World notes that sample sizes for qualitative research are often smaller, as researchers often conduct in-depth interviews or work with small focus groups. Other methods of qualitative research include analysis of documents, surveys, audio, videos or pictures.
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Benefits
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QSR International is a software provider that creates solutions for use in research involving "unstructured data," which is perfect for qualitative research. In its "What is Qualitative Research?" introduction, QSR outlines common benefits, which include exploring issues, understanding curious phenomena, and answering key questions. Qualitative research usually offers deeper responses to research questions that quantitative data can not always provide. You get to engage test subjects, such as customers, more directly and get more thorough explanations to their answers.
Challenges
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Challenges involved in qualitative research are inherent. Because you are working with a smaller sample size, accuracy of results is harder to determine. Additionally, common techniques like focus groups may lead to groupthink or other influences that impact your results. Your biggest challenge, though, is interpretation. You must determine the results and interpret them by gauging the breadth of feedback received from all research subjects. This is much more difficult without numbers to work with.
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References
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