What type of research design that is used to investigate a problem which is not clearly defined?

According to Wikipedia, Exploratory research is carried out for a difficulty which has not been clearly defined. It helps in figuring out the best research design, data collection method and choice of subjects.

It should draw definitive conclusions only with extreme caution. Given its basic nature, it usually concludes that an identified problem doesn’t actually exist. The purpose is to find out ideas and information.

Types of Exploratory Research Design

Some of the more popular methods of exploratory research design include literature searches, depth interviews, focus groups, and case analyses.

Literature Search: It is one of the fastest and least expensive means to discover hypotheses. There is enormous quantity of information available in libraries, via internet sources, in commercial data bases, and so on. The literature search may include newspapers, magazines, trade literature, academic literature, or published statistics from research organizations or governmental agencies Census Bureau. Example: Assume an issue is “Why are product sales lower?” This can easily be evaluated with the aid of published data which should indicate “whether the issue is an “industry problem” or a “firm problem”.

If we acknowledge the specific situation that our company’s sales and profits are lower regardless of the market showing an up trend, then we must evaluate the marketing mix variables.

Depth Interviews: It’s important to start with a good literature search, but at some point it is desirable to talk to persons who are well informed in the area being investigated. These people could be professionals or persons outside the organisation. Here, we don’t need questionnaire. The approach adopted should be highly unstructured, so that the participant can give divergent views.

Depth interviews are widely used to tap the knowledge and experience of individuals with information strongly related the situation or opportunity at hand. Anybody with related information is a potential candidate for a depth interview, such as existing clients, members of the target market, executives and supervisors of the client organization, sales representatives, suppliers, retailers, and so on.

Focus Group: Yet another frequently used method in exploratory research is the focus group. In a focus group, only a few people are brought together to study and talk over some theme of interest. The discussion is directed by a moderator who is in the room with the focus group participants. The group usually is of 8-12 persons. While choosing these individuals, care must be taken to see that they should have a common background and have comparable experiences in buying. This is certainly needed since there should not be a conflict among the group members on the common problems that are being talked about. Throughout the discussion, future buying attitudes, present buying opinion etc., are collected.

Case Analyses: Researchers can understand a lot in regards to a problem by studying carefully selected examples or cases of the phenomenon. Case histories of businesses that have gone through an identical problem may be available. These case studies are suitable to undertake exploratory research. A researcher must examine carefully the previously published case studies with regard to variables like price, advertisement, changes in the trend, etc.

Examples of Exploratory Research

Literature Search Examples

Example 1: A Washing machine producing firm feels that its share of the market is decreasing whereas the overall industry is thriving.
Example 2: As a result of a trade restriction imposed by a country, auto exports are down and hence sales of a company making cars for exports is on the decline.

The above mentioned information enables you to pinpoint the reason for declining sales.

Depth Interviews

For example, a children’s book publisher obtained useful information regarding a sales decline by speaking with librarians and school teachers who revealed that increasing numbers of people were using library facilities and possibly buying fewer books for their children.

Case Analyses

For example, L.L.Bean is recognized for its exceptional order fulfillment. Even during the busy Christmas season, the corporation usually fills over 99 % of its orders correctly. For that reason, various other businesses have sought to improve their own order fulfillment by benchmarking L.L.Bean.

Watch a video on Exploratory Research

Read Also: Different Methods of Exploratory Research Design

This research is conducted to clarify ambiguous problems. In this article, we have discussed about the different types of exploratory research design, its examples, and methods. Post your feedback or queries in comments.

Exploratory Research | Definition, Guide, & Examples

Published on December 6, 2021 by Tegan George. Revised on May 7, 2022.

Exploratory research is a methodology approach that investigates research questions that have not previously been studied in depth.

Exploratory research is often qualitative in nature. However, a study with a large sample conducted in an exploratory manner can be quantitative as well. It is also often referred to as interpretive research or a grounded theory approach due to its flexible and open-ended nature.

Note: Be careful not to confuse exploratory research with explanatory research, which is also preliminary in nature but instead explores why a well-documented problem occurs.

When to use exploratory research
Exploratory research questions
Exploratory research data collection
Step-by-step example of exploratory research
Exploratory vs. explanatory research
Advantages and disadvantages of exploratory research
Frequently asked questions about exploratory research

When to use exploratory research

Exploratory research is often used when the issue you’re studying is new or when the data collection process is challenging for some reason.

You can use this type of research if you have a general idea or a specific question that you want to study but there is no preexisting knowledge or paradigm with which to study it.

Example: Exploratory research problemYour university dining hall is considering adding vegan versions of its meals to its daily menu, something it has never offered before. However, the university is hesitant to do so because of concerns that the items will not be sufficiently popular, leading to increased food waste.

Your university is eco-conscious and will not add the items if this will increase food waste. As there is also a cost associated with developing the recipes, the plan will only proceed if there is concrete proof that the vegan meals will be successful.

Exploratory research questions

Exploratory research questions are designed to help you understand more about a particular topic of interest. They can help you connect ideas to understand the groundwork of your analysis without adding any preconceived notions or assumptions yet.

Here are some examples:

What effect does using a digital notebook have on the attention span of middle schoolers?
What factors influence mental health in undergraduates?
What outcomes are associated with an authoritative parenting style?
In what ways does the presence of a non-native accent affect intelligibility?
How can the use of a grocery delivery service reduce food waste in single-person households?

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Try for free

Exploratory research data collection

Collecting information on a previously unexplored topic can be challenging. Exploratory research can help you narrow down your topic and formulate a clear hypothesis, as well as giving you the “lay of the land” on your topic.

Data collection using exploratory research is often divided into primary and secondary research methods, with data analysis following the same model.

Primary research

In primary research, your data is collected directly from primary sources: your participants. There is a variety of ways to collect primary data.

Some examples include:

Survey methodology: Sending a survey out to the student body asking them if they would eat vegan meals
Focus groups: Compiling groups of 8–10 students and discussing what they think of vegan options for dining hall food
Interviews: Interviewing students entering and exiting the dining hall, asking if they would eat vegan meals

Secondary research

In secondary research, your data is collected from preexisting primary research, such as experiments or surveys.

Some other examples include:

Case studies: Health of an all-vegan diet
Literature reviews: Preexisting research about students’ eating habits and how they have changed over time
Online polls, surveys, blog posts, or interviews; social media: Have other schools done something similar?

For some subjects, it’s possible to use large-n government data, such as the decennial census or yearly American Community Survey (ACS) open-source data.

Step-by-step example of exploratory research

How you proceed with your exploratory research design depends on the research method you choose to collect your data. In most cases, you will follow five steps.

We’ll walk you through the steps using the following example.

Example: Exploratory research topicYou teach English as a second language (ESL). The current methods for oral proficiency all focus on reducing the learner’s non-native accent, but you suspect that having an accent doesn’t actually reduce intelligibility.

Therefore, you would like to focus on improving intelligibility instead of reducing the learner’s accent.

However, the relationship between someone’s accent and their intelligibility hasn’t been studied yet. You decide to come up with an exploratory research design to investigate this relationship without spending too many resources or too much time doing so.

Step 1: Identify your problem

The first step in conducting exploratory research is identifying what the problem is and whether this type of research is the right avenue for you to pursue. Remember that exploratory research is most advantageous when you are investigating a previously unexplored problem.

Example: Problem definitionYou have noticed that people who speak with a non-native accent accent are often as intelligible as people who speak with a native accent. In addition to the difficulty of reducing a non-native accent, it is also often undesirable to do so, since the accent can be part of the learner’s identity.

However, all current teaching methods focus on reducing the accent instead of improving intelligibility. You think this may not be the most efficient approach to helping people learn English as a second language.

Step 2: Hypothesize a solution

The next step is to come up with a solution to the problem you’re investigating. Formulate a hypothetical statement to guide your research.

Example: Hypothetical solutionYou expect that learners of English as a second language would benefit more from an increased focus on improving intelligibility rather than reducing a non-native accent. You think it would be best if the educational methods for oral proficiency reflected this.

Step 3. Design your methodology

Next, conceptualize your data collection and data analysis methods and write them up in a research design.

Example: MethodologyYou decide to informally interview other teachers of English as a second language and ask them questions related to training oral proficiency. You make sure that your questions are related to the relationship between the strength of a non-native accent and the degree of intelligibility.

Step 4: Collect and analyze data

Next, you proceed with collecting and analyzing your data so you can determine whether your preliminary results are in line with your hypothesis.

In most types of research, you should formulate your hypotheses a priori and refrain from changing them due to the increased risk of Type I errors and data integrity issues. However, in exploratory research, you are allowed to change your hypothesis based on your findings, since you are exploring a previously unexplained phenomenon that could have many explanations.

Example: Preliminary resultsAfter conducting and analyzing the interviews, you determine that other teachers agree with your hypothesis. They also suspect that non-native accent reduction does not contribute to the speaker’s intelligibility.

Step 5: Avenues for future research

Decide if you would like to continue studying your topic. If so, it is likely that you will need to change to another type of research. As exploratory research is often qualitative in nature, you may need to conduct quantitative research with a larger sample size to achieve more generalizable results.

Example: Future research ideasYour preliminary results were in line with your expectations, but you need to officially test your hypothesis by conducting a more extensive study. You list suggestions for future research to further investigate the relationship.

You suggest an experiment during which participants listen to speech samples of speakers with non-native accents in varying degrees. Participants are asked to fill in the missing words in transcripts. This way, you can investigate whether people with a stronger non-native accent are indeed as intelligible as speakers with a native accent.

Exploratory vs. explanatory research

It can be easy to confuse exploratory research with explanatory research. To understand the relationship, it can help to remember that exploratory research lays the groundwork for later explanatory research.

Exploratory research investigates research questions that have not been studied in depth. The preliminary results often lay the groundwork for future analysis.

Explanatory research questions tend to start with “why” or “how”, and the goal is to explain why or how a previously studied phenomenon takes place.

Advantages and disadvantages of exploratory research

Like any other research design, exploratory studies have their trade-offs: they provide a unique set of benefits but also come with downsides.

Advantages

It can be very helpful in narrowing down a challenging or nebulous problem that has not been previously studied.
It can serve as a great guide for future research, whether your own or another researcher’s. With new and challenging research problems, adding to the body of research in the early stages can be very fulfilling.
It is very flexible, cost-effective, and open-ended. You are free to proceed however you think is best.

Disadvantages

It usually lacks conclusive results, and results can be biased or subjective due to a lack of preexisting knowledge on your topic.
It’s typically not externally valid and generalizable, and it suffers from many of the challenges of qualitative research.
Since you are not operating within an existing research paradigm, this type of research can be very labor-intensive.

Frequently asked questions about exploratory research

What is exploratory research?

Exploratory research is a methodology approach that explores research questions that have not previously been studied in depth. It is often used when the issue you’re studying is new, or the data collection process is challenging in some way.

What’s the difference between exploratory and explanatory research?

Exploratory research aims to explore the main aspects of an under-researched problem, while explanatory research aims to explain the causes and consequences of a well-defined problem.

When should I use exploratory research?

Exploratory research is often used when the issue you’re studying is new or when the data collection process is challenging for some reason.

You can use exploratory research if you have a general idea or a specific question that you want to study but there is no preexisting knowledge or paradigm with which to study it.

What’s the difference between quantitative and qualitative methods?

Quantitative research deals with numbers and statistics, while qualitative research deals with words and meanings.

Quantitative methods allow you to systematically measure variables and test hypotheses. Qualitative methods allow you to explore concepts and experiences in more detail.

Is this article helpful?

139 13

You have already voted. Thanks :-) Your vote is saved :-) Processing your vote...

Tegan George

Tegan is an American based in Amsterdam, with master's degrees in political science and education administration. While she is definitely a political scientist at heart, her experience working at universities led to a passion for making social science topics more approachable and exciting to students. A well-designed natural experiment is her favorite type of research, but she also loves qualitative methods of all varieties.