TYPES OF RESEARCH

Submitted to: Sir Dr. Muhammad Khalid Mukhtar

Submitted by:
Ameera Shahid BZOF19M004
Naveela Meral BZOF19M005
Aliya Zahra BZOF19M006
Course name: Synopsis and research methodology
 Researc
h:
The creation of new knowledge or use
of existing knowledge in a new and
creative way so as to produce new
concepts, methodologies and
understandings.
Different types of Research:

1) Fundamental Research:
• Basic or pure research
• Conducted for EXPANDING the knowledge rather than
solving a problem.
• Forms new ideas, principles and theories.
• Focus on making GENERALIZATIONS.
• Results form basis for other applied researches
• FOR EXAMPLE: study on symptoms of coronavirus
2) Applied
Research:
• Step after fundamental research
• Well accepted theories are verified and applied on real life
situations to find SOLUTIONS for practical problems for
specific area.
• Does NOT focus on making generalizations.
• Also as decisional research.
• FOR EXAMPLE: Making vaccine for corona virus.
3) Action Research:
• Used to IMPROVE the quality of decisions and actions.
• Focuses on ameliorating the present conditions.

To make something better

• FOR EXAMPLE: testing the purity of water in an area and
taking necessary steps to improve quality of water.
• Four stages: PLAN, ACT, OBSERVE & REFLECT.
4) Exploratory Research:
• Discovery of NEW IDEAS.
• Helps in gaining insight into a problem which has not been
researched yet.
• The problem is explored with:
Determination of research design
Type of data to be collected
Methods to be used
Questions to be asked from respondents
• FOR EXAMPLE: owner of cupcakes king uses open ended
questions for enhancing bakery sales.
5) Explanatory Research:
• Also as causal research.
• Describes cause and effect relationship between variables.
• EXPERIMENTATIONS is primary method of conducting
explanatory research.
• FOR EXAMPLE: what is the reason behind failure of
students.
 6) Case Study Research
● In this type of research, data is collected regarding a specific organisation,
entity or a company to gain insight into the problem at hand.
● Involves in-depth and detailed examination of a specific real-world subject.
● Case studies can be exploratory, explanatory and even descriptive as well.
7) Survey Research:

 It is the method of collecting the primary data by asking

questions from the individuals.
 The instrument used is a questionnaire which can be asked
in an interview, mail or online.
 This questionnaire can be structured or unstructured
depending upon the type of data being collected.
 e.g. Survey to consumer feedback.
 
Quantitative Research
● Carried out to study a phenomenon that can be expressed in numbers.
● It is numerical in nature.
● For example, study conducted to find out the average number of people using
online cab services in Delhi.
● It is deductive in nature and starts with a given theory(developed in qualitative
research).Hypothesis is framed and tested upon after the data is collected and
analysed, and finally conclusions are drawn.
● The results are often presented in the form of tables or graphs. It is conclusive
in nature.
● It answers the 'what, where and when' questions and not 'why' questions.
● Surveys are usually conducted in order to collect data.
● Close-ended questions are asked in order to gather the statistical data.
 Types of Quantitative Research:
1) Descriptive Research
● Seeks to describe the current status of an identified variable like people, events, phenomena
etc.
● It tells 'what' question i.e. what are the characteristics of the given phenomena.
● It is called statistical research because here, frequencies, averages & other statistical
calculations are studied.
● For example, what is the number of people buying broiler chicken in Pakistan on daily basis.
● Here, the questions must be clearly defined before conducting the study.
● It does not establish the cause and effect relationship between the variables.
● Here, variables are only observed and are not influenced by the researcher.
● Case studies, interviews and survey questionnaires are used.
 2) Correctional Research
● Determines the extent of relationship between two or more variables
using statistical data.
● It only recognises the trends and patterns in data but it doesn't analyse
the cause & effect relationship b/w the variables.
● Here, variables are not manipulated but are identified only in their
natural setting.
● It is a type of descriptive research & not an its own type of research as
no variables are manipulated.
● For example, relationship b/w stress-level and employee performances
 3) Experimental Research:
● Here, the cause and effect relationship b/w the variables are
studied.
● There are two variables-dependent and independent.
● Independent variables are manipulated by the researcher in order
to find the effect on the dependent variables.
● Here, data is gathered in a controlled environment and not in a
natural setting.
● For example, to find out the impact of changes in plant height
before and after the administration of fertilizer.
 4) Quasi- Experimental Research
● Also called as Ex-post facto method and Causal-Comparative method.
● It examines the impact of changes in the independent variable on the
dependent variable without the interference of the researcher.
● It is not a true experiment as the researcher makes no manipulations in the
independent variable.
● For example, a researcher is interested to know how height influences self-
esteem level in adults
● Majority of social research in which it is difficult to manipulate the
characteristics of human participants, is based on ex-post facto research.
Qualitative Research
 It is exploratory research.Used
 Used to gain an understanding of the underlying reasons, opinions and motivations. The finding of “WHY”
(the reason) is the qualitative research.

 It is non-numerical.
 This method is not about “What” people think but about “Why” people think.
 It is a broad field of inquiry using unstructured data collection to find out the reasons for underlying
behaviors and attitudes.
 Focal groups and interviews are conducted to gain insights into the feelings, perceptions, thoughts and
behavior of respondents.
 Open handed questions are asked to gather as much information as possible. e.g Why you prefer Amazon to
others? This will have more than one answers. This is called open handed questions i.e. answer can be
anything according to consumer usage.
 This is mostly used in psychology, sociology and consumer behavior.
 It is inductive in nature means it starts with a social reality and ends up with a theory. e.g. we started with a
focal group, gathered information from their thinking. These details will be applied to all the other people in
the market. It means the theory is general in nature i.e. can be applied to everyone.
 It is a starting material for quantitative research. After the formation of theory steps like hypothesis, testing
and conclusions are derived.
 Hypothesis is not a step in qualitative research. We are just understanding the thinking and perceptions of the
people. Hypothesis means already having a guess or idea about those perceptions and it is not a part of
qualitative research.
 The focal group size is always taken small. Their thoughts are taken as thoughts of all other people.
 The quality of qualitative research depends upon the skill of researcher. e.g. on getting an answer, what
should be the next question depends upon his skills.
3 Ways of data collection:
1) Focus group:
By questioning 5-10 selected members.

2) In depth interviews:
One to one questioning to a person which helps in getting in depth knowledge
about his views.

3) Observation (Participant and Non Participant):

Observing in natural behavior of the customers.
Participant in which you participate in asking questions from the people and
Non-Participant in which you just sit and observe.
Types of Qualitative Research:

1) Historical Research:
 It involves studying and interpretation of past events and their influence on
present events.
 It answers the question i.e. what was the situation?
 Sources includes past records like diaries, reports, birth certificates.
 e.g. businesses can get past records about a sales policy that helps in determining
the best policy by comparing it to the recent one in use today.
 In short, this research involves the deep diving into the history for present use
2) Ethnographic research:
 This research helps in determining the culture and traditions of the people by
observing them in there real environment.
 It is an observational in-depth method.
 It does not involve surveys and interviews just simple observing.
 It is a time consuming process.
 It originates from anthropology (cultural study) applied in business policies. It
helps in finding reactions of the people for a particular product and making
modifications according to it to make it better.
3) Phenomenological research:
 It involves the experience of a customer related to a particular
phenomenun or activity.
 So, it is an experience based research method.
 A combination of methods are used in it to gather the data e.g. conducting
interviews, watching videos, reading documents and visiting places to
understand the problem at hand very well.
 e.g. Finding the choices of the students in applying for a university or college
depending upon their experiences.
 So, this method actually involves participants’ lived experience and then
making modifications in it accordingly.
4) Narrative Research:
 In this type the researcher “narrates” the experiences of the people.
They examine how the stories are being told by the people depending
upon their perceptions and experiences.
 The data is gathered from one or two individuals through interviews,
journals, family history, autobiography and documents, over a period of
time like weeks, months or even years.
 It combines together the sequences of events in the form of a cohesive
story.
 The emphasis is on the storied experience.