MBA Distance education learning/ Qualitative research

Q : What is qualitative research ?

Ans: The qualitative research is:

1. An exploratory process: The research is an effort to describe the object, concept, human behavior in certain situations or in general, or any market condition.
2. The quantitative research id used to generate insights o consumer behavior and consumer buying process.
3. Quantitative research is subjective and needs trained psychologist and interviewers.
4. The market research through qualitative research is done with the help of:
   1. Exploratory research
   2. Projective techniques, and
   3. Observation methods.

5. Not much emphasis is put upon sample selection.

Q: Differentiate between the qualitative and quantitative research?

Ans: 1. Qualitative research generates hypothesis whereas the quantitative research test the hypothesis of the research.

2. In qualitative research not much emphasis is put upon sample selection and its size whereas it is important in Qualitative research.

3. In qualitative research the sample must belong to different sections of the population whereas the representative ness of the sample is important in Qualitative research.

4. The generalization of the result of qualitative research can be very dangerous whereas the conclusions of qualitative research are generalized to the universe/ population.

Q: Explain the utility of qualitative research?

Ans: The followings are the main uses of the qualitative research.

1. Whenever company wants to know the consumer needs or problems, desirable change in the existing product the qualitative research is used in concept generalization and evaluation.
2. The qualitative research works as a base for quantitative research which is further validated by quantitative research.
3. It is used to formulate hypothesis for further investigation/quantification.
4. Qualitative research provides the flexible research methodology for conducting research.
5. The marketing activities like concept development, product development, advertising research etc requires qualitative approach hence qualitative research is useful.

Q: What are the methods of conducting quantitative research?

Ans: the methods of conducting quantitative research are:

1. Intensive or in-depth interview

In-depth interview is used in the following situations.

1. When details of consumer’s behavior, attitude, and needs is required.
2. When the subject matter has emotional elements.
3. When the subject matter is highly confidential in nature.
4. When group discussion is not sufficient to elicit the information the in-depth interviews are conducted.

The limitations of the in-depth interviews.

1. This requires the skill of interviewer in drawing out the respondent’s true feeling.
2. The researcher or interviewer should possess both

verbal and non-verbal communication skills to understand the respondent’s voice tone, facial expression, movement of hands etc.

1. Focus-group discussion.
   1. Brain storming

In this method in absence of moderator the group freely expresses its ideas on the given topic and data is collected through tape-recorder or video taping for recording facial expression.

1. Focused group discussion.

In such a method, the group is given a topic and asked to discuss the topic. And a moderator functions to keep the group discussion on track of subject.

1. Projective techniques
   1. Word Association test

In this method the words are presented before the respondent where the subject jots down his first thought response as given below.

Example: Suppose a company wishes to understand what a person thinks about electronic products:

Stimulus words Corresponding Response

• Mobile
• Refrigerator
• Television
• Computer.
• Laptop computer.

1. Sentence completion test

Here the respondent is given with an incomplete sentence to complete with the first thought that comes to his mind.

Example:

• I like to drive car because……………..
• Most people drink because……….……

1. Picture interpretation

Under this the respondent is presented with a picture to interpret from.

4. Observation Method.