Exploratory Research

JOURNAL #FIVE [RES701]

Exploratory Research

What is Exploratory Research?

Exploratory research is used to investigate problems that are not yet clearly defined, so that a researcher might gain a better understanding of the problem. Exploratory research is not used to produce conclusive results and is used at a more preliminary level.

The foundation of this research starts in children, when they ask: Where do babies come from? Or Why is the sky blue?

Reference: Exploratory Research: Definition, Methods, Types and Examples, https://www.questionpro.com/blog/exploratory-research/

What kinds of questions/problems might it be useful for?

Exploratory research is extremely useful in business and marketing. Business owners and marketing teams use this to explore opportunities for increasing sales or making improvements to their offering. The point is not to find a definitive answer, as one often will not exist, but it can provide direction and a better understanding of the problem.

The business owner or marketing team of a hotel for example might start by looking at previously conducted research, this might detail improvement methods for improving the quality of the rooms, or lead them to generate questions they can ask their customers to help them improve the customer experience.

Reference: Exploratory Research: Definition, Methods & Examples, https://study.com/academy/lesson/exploratory-research-definition-methods-examples.html

Another example of exploratory research is a crime, which needs to be investigated. The initial step is to look for hints which helps investigators to establish what happened. The clues that are revealed as a result of the exploratory stage can point to a hypothesis or explanation to allow investigators to focus efforts for conducting interviews with witnesses and suspects.

Reference: What is an example of an exploratory research?, https://www.quora.com/What-is-an-example-of-an-exploratory-research?share=1

How could it be used in IT research (try to think of an example)?

A relevant example of exploratory research in IT would be understating how the Internet of Things (IoT) has and will change the world, and how that change will affect human life.

The methods used within the arena of exploratory research can be used to establish what is happening and how people feel about the rise of the IoT, what benefits and disadvantages there are and how markets can adapt and change to identify areas of potential opportunities.

What are the strengths of the approach?

This type of research in normally carried out the when a problem is at the preliminary stage. The benefit of this type of research is that assumptions can be challenged, and there should be a willingness to be flexible as new data is discovered.

This type of research has the potential to lead to new possibilities or new areas of investigation that had not been previously considered.

The benefits of exploratory research are:

Increased Understanding - Improve the knowledge the researchers has of a topic
Concept Testing - Used as a base to check concepts before they go to market
Assistance - Build up a list of possible causes to a problem
Source Flexibility - Published literature from multiple secondary sources
Achieve Goals - Support the strategic goals of decision makers
Administering - Answer questions to the administering of projects
Conclusions - Better topical knowledge helps guide future research
Strategic Planning - In the right circumstances can lead to reducing costs and saving time

Exploratory research is incredible versatile and can help you uncover faults in a study or marketing strategy, and there are many methods to achieving this:

1. Focus Groups - Provides useful information about the problem
2. Surveys - Excellent for collecting data to uncover trends and opinions
3. Interview - Allow for interaction with target market and research participants
4. Secondary Research - Review of earlier work allows researchers to prove the data is correct

Reference: 10+ Exploratory Research Examples in PDF DOC, https://www.examples.com/business/exploratory-research.html

What are the weaknesses of the approach?

Exploratory research is not with its drawbacks, the biggest is that is can lean into qualitative research which can be interpreted with biases. Additionally, the outcome can be unclear if the data is inconclusive. Rarely does this type of research produce definitive answers.

Typically with this type of research, those studied may not be typical of the larger population interested in the topic, meaning it is not representative. Ultimately this leads to research that can be costly and can be unsuccessful.