Basic Research

Basic research is pure or fundamental research; there is no immediate need, but new theories can be added to the knowledge cluster. This type of research may solve problems but may not have practical applications. It has a broader scope compared to applied research. Theories in basic sciences and mathematics are examples of basic research. Newton’s laws of motion is an example of basic research. This has been applied in many product design and testing.

Applied Research

Applied research tries to solve an immediate specific problem faced by industry or society. The obtained solution can be deployed to solve the problem. The duration of applied research is shorter as a quick solution is expected. An optimized search problem on the Internet is an example of applied research in the computer engineering domain. “Analysis of cell/body organ behavior in cancer” is an example of hybrid research. A researcher may use data analytics, image processing, algorithms, and knowledge of the medical industry.

The outcome of applied research should either address the unsolved problem or improve the existing solution.

Descriptive Research

Descriptive research is generally used in business analysis or social problems. This type of research does not have any control over the parameters or variables. It just tries to represent or analyze the previous and or current facts.

Some of the examples of descriptive research include an analysis of customer purchase patterns, that is, purchases from the mall, online, or retailer, as well as the study of travel mode used by people. All kinds of correlational methods, survey methods, and comparative studies are descriptive research. Various kinds of systematic surveys are conducted, including the study of various cultural practices, the region-specific study of particular decease, and an analysis of the development of particular businesses. This is also known as ex-post facto research. Study of the effect of global warming on birds is also an example of descriptive research. One specific example is: “To study socio-economic characteristics of residents of particular community during certain period for specific country.”

Analytical Research

Analytical research uses existing information to explain a complex phenomenon or to perform a critical evaluation. The identified hypothesis can be accepted or rejected depending on the analysis; from experience the hypothesis can be redefined. Analytical research is observed in historical study, forensic work, food, in the medical domain, and so on.

Analytical research summarizes and evaluates the ideas in historical research for accessing both witness and literature sources to document past events. Philosophical research organizes data that can be presented to support the data in comprehensive model.

Correlational Research

Correlational research focuses on exploring the relationship or association between incidences, variables, and so on. Examples of correlational research include “To study the effect of a modern lifestyle on obesity” and “Analysis of the impact of technology on employment.”

In the first example, a modern lifestyle and obesity are two variables and researchers should study a group of people living both a modern lifestyle and a nonmodern lifestyle. The groups should be segregated on the basis of obesity parameters. Collected data may be analyzed to establish the relationship between two variables: “obesity” and “modern” lifestyle. Similarly, researchers need to study “employment” and “availability of technology.” From the collected data, researchers may come up with number of observations and analytics.

An institute organizes a conference and takes feedback from participants as its regular practice, to provide input for evaluating the quality of current conference and to make improvement in next conference. Participants who attended the conference gave feedback stating that there was a difficulty in reaching the location. For the next conference, the survey question can include a question, “Was there a sufficient service available for reaching the location?”

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research mainly deals with the quality or the types of the parameters considered for the research. Here, it is assumed that the world is unstable and differences in the parameter may occur with time. Research related to human behaviour is an example of qualitative research. Everybody can react to the situation differently and it is difficult to propose the predictive conclusions. This type of research is more complicated and requires more guidance. Less emphasis is given on generalization and more focus is towards individual.

An example can be “Study of behaviour of employees in an organization.” Here, behavior of an employee may vary with different parameters such as gender, post, skill set, expertise, socioeconomic status, and religion. Focus of the work is to find results with respect to qualitative parameters. Another the example of qualitative research is, “How and why there is an upward movement in the value of dollar and its impact on the Indian currency.”

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research involves measurements of quantities of characteristics that can be used as features for the research study. Unlike qualitative research quantitative research assumes that world is stable and uses statistical analysis on parameter values for conclusions. Statistical quantities that can be measured are involved in quantitative research.

Example of quantitative research is “Finding number of individuals taking benefits of different government policies.” This is a statistical report of various government policies and number of individuals and does not involve any qualitative parameter. Another example is to conduct a survey every weekend and a random question is been asked, “Who is your favorite actor?” and response of this questions is self-controlled by providing a multiple choice question. The outcomes are provided briefly in judgement form with statistical respective.

Experimental Research

Experimental research focuses on the fieldwork and experiments that can control the independent variable. Study of the effect of the new drug on a specific group of people or animal is an example of experimental research in medicine domain. In computer engineering, “Analysing performance of algorithms on various dataset” is an example of experimental result. A researcher wants to examine changes in the land cover using satellite data. In this example, to ensure the changes in the study area, researchers randomly place the area of changes including change in the agricultural land due to land degradation, NH roadways, and so on, which can be verified with quasi experimental research and can be tested and trained with pre- and post-experimental research design.

Explanatory Research

Explanatory research tries to analyze and justify the reason behind the occurrence of particular phenomenon or association between the variables. It basically answers the “Why” type of questions. It aims to explain why a relationship, association, or interdependence exist. Explanatory research is also called as a causal research with a three important components like time-to-time sequences which will occur before the effect, concomitant variations, where the variations will be systematic between two variables. Some of the examples of explanatory research are “Why the modernisation creates health problem?”, “Why some students have casual attitude towards study, while others are sincere?”, “Why will customers buy our food products in green packages?”, “Which of the two advertising company will help students by providing the internship?”, ‘which company will be more effective and why?’

Exploratory Research

This kind of research generally explores the areas that have required meagre attention or it is for checking the possibility of research in the particular domain or area. A small-scale study is done to decide the further scope of advancement in domain. Depending on outcomes of exploratory study, domain is further explored for in depth research on the specific topic. Exploratory studies are also conducted to develop, refine and test procedures, policies, and tools. Some of the examples of exploratory research are, “Why product sales are reduced, due to already existing data or the products which have been acquired recently for the agricultural company?” Generally, the research statements that span across multiple domains come under exploratory research.