TYPES OF RESEARCH:

BASIC RESEARCH AND APPLIED RESEARCH,

EXPLORATORY RESEARCH,
DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH AND
CAUSAL RESEARCH

OTHER TYPES OF RESEARCH:

PREDICTIVE RESEARCH
CONCEPTUAL RESEARCH
EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
HISTORICAL RESEARCH
TYPES OF RESEARCH
1. BASIC (OR) FUNDAMENTAL (OR) PURE RESEARCH
• Enquiry aimed at understanding.

• It pursues knowledge.

• It may or may not have practical or commercial use.

• Time period involved is flexible and vast.

• It is intended to find out some basic principles like Maslow theory,

Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne studies.

• It is used for the purpose of developing scientific theories rather

than the purpose of solving immediate problems.
2. APPLIED RESEARCH
• Enquiry aimed at applying the available knowledge for practical or
commercial use.

• It is aimed at problem-solving.

• It seeks an immediate and practical results.

• It is mainly problem oriented and action oriented.

• The purpose is to improve the product or process and to test

theoretical concepts in actual and problematic situations.
• It helps in

1. Integration of many theories and principles of various

disciplines.

2. Conceptual classification by operationalising the concepts.

3. Testing the validity of existing theories.

4. Contributing new facts which enrich the concerned body of

knowledge.

• Eg. Educational research for new methods of teaching.

3. EXPLORATORY RESEARCH
• It is used to gain deeper understanding of something.

• It helps the researcher to give better understanding of the concept

and provides direction in order to initiate more structured
research.

• It is the preliminary study of an unfamiliar problem about which

the researcher has little or no knowledge.

• It is necessary to get insights into the problem for the purpose of

formulating more precise investigation.
• The purposes is to,

1. Make a precise formulation of the problem.

2. Increase the researchers familiarity with the problem.

3. Identify the causes of the problem.

4. Determine whether it is feasible to take it as a research study

or not.

• It identifies the need of information for future research.

• Eg. Interview with an employee to get more insights about the

degree of job satisfaction.
4. CONCLUSIVE RESEARCH
• It tests and authenticates the propositions revealed by Exploratory
Research.

• It is usually quantitative in nature.

• It is a specially carried out to validate formulated hypothesis and

specified relationship.

• It is well structured and systematic in design.

• Conclusive research is broadly classified into two types,

a) Descriptive research

b) Causal research
A) DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH
• Descriptive research describes a single event or characteristics
through distributions or may try to relate a few events or variables
through statistical analysis.

• The main goal is to describe the data and characteristics of what is

being studied.

• It is fact-finding investigation used for describing, recording,

analysis and interpreting conditions that exist.

• It helps to discover relationship between existing non-manipulated

variables.
• The purpose is to

1. Receive evidence concerning existing standard.

2. Identify norms with which to compare present conditions in

order to plan for next step.

3. Provides facts needed for planning.

• Eg. Census study by Govt. of India.

B) CAUSAL RESEARCH (OR) EXPLANATORY RESEARCH

• It is concerned with exploring the effect of one variable on another

variable.

• It requires a rigid sequential approach to sampling, data collection

and data analysis.

• It established the “ Why and How” phenomenon.

• It is highly structured.

• Eg. Impact of flexible work policies on turnover.

 OTHER TYPES OF RESEARCH

• Other types of research includes,

1. Predictive research

2. Conceptual research

3. Empirical research

4. Experimental research

5. Historical research
1. PREDICTIVE RESEARCH

• Predictive research constructs and uses models to forecast

the occurrence of an event or events.

• It uses the type of modelling done in exploratory research to

forecast the occurrence under certain conditions arising in
the future.

• Eg. Retail Business looking to improve its sales position.

2. CONCEPTUAL RESEARCH
• Conceptual research is related to some abstract ideas or
theory.

• It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to develop

new concepts or to reinterpret existing ones.

• Eg. The most famous example of a conceptual research is Sir

Issac Newton. He observed his surroundings to conceptualize
and develop theories about gravitation and motion. 
3. EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
• It is data based research, coming up with conclusions which are
capable of being verified by observation or experiment.

• Empirical research is research using empirical evidence.

• It is also a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and

indirect observation or experience.

• Eg. Pharmaceutical companies use empirical research to try out a

specific drug on controlled groups or random groups to study the
effect and cause. 
4. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
• It is to assess the effects of particular variables on a phenomenon by
keeping the other variables constant or controlled.

• To determine whether and in what manner variables are related to

each other.

• The factor which is influenced by other factors is called a

dependent variable (DV) and the other factors which influence it
are known as independent variables (IDV).

• Eg. Agricultural Productivity. IDV – Soil and DV – Yield.

5. HISTORICAL RESEARCH

• Study of past record and other information sources.

• Its main objective is to draw explanations and generalizations

from the past trends in order to understand the present and
to anticipate the future.

• Eg. Writing an essay on Second World War.

THANK YOU