THREE TYPES OF RESEARCH WHICH ARE WIDELY USED UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE

RESEARCHERS

1. Exploratory research
Exploratory research is an important part of any marketing or business strategy. Its
focus is on the discovery of ideas and insights as opposed to collecting statistically
accurate data. That is why exploratory research is best suited as the beginning of your
total research plan. It is most commonly used for further defining company issues, areas
for potential growth, alternative courses of action, and prioritizing areas that require
statistical research.

When it comes to online surveys, the most common example of exploratory research
takes place in the form of open-ended questions. Think of the exploratory questions in
your survey as expanding your understanding of the people you are surveying. Text
responses may not be statistically measureable, but they will give you richer quality
information that can lead to the discovery of new initiatives or problems that should be
addressed.

2. Descriptive research
Descriptive research takes up the bulk of online surveying and is considered conclusive
in nature due to its quantitative nature. Unlike exploratory research, descriptive research
is preplanned and structured in design so the information collected can be statistically
inferred on a population.

The main idea behind using this type of research is to better define an opinion, attitude,
or behavior held by a group of people on a given subject. Consider your everyday
multiple choice question. Since there are predefined categories a respondent must
choose from, it is considered descriptive research. These questions will not give the
unique insights on the issues like exploratory research would. Instead, grouping the
responses into predetermined choices will provide statistically inferable data. This
allows you to measure the significance of your results on the overall population you are
studying, as well as the changes of your respondent’s opinions, attitudes, and behaviors
over time.
 3. Causal research
Like descriptive research, causal research is quantitative in nature as well as
preplanned and structured in design. For this reason, it is also considered conclusive
research. Causal research differs in its attempt to explain the cause and effect
relationship between variables. This is opposed to the observational style of descriptive
research, because it attempts to decipher whether a relationship is causal through
experimentation. In the end, causal research will have two objectives:

 To understand which variables are the cause and which variables are the effect.

 To determine the nature of the relationship between the causal variables and the effect to be
predicted.