Market Research: Foundations to Practice · Research Design: Choosing the Right Method
Exploratory, Descriptive, and Causal Research
These three research purposes require genuinely different designs, and treating them interchangeably is a common source of studies that answer the wrong kind of question. This chapter covers what distinguishes them.
Exploratory research is used when a problem or opportunity is not yet well understood, aiming to generate hypotheses and clarify what questions are even worth asking more rigorously later, typically through qualitative methods, secondary research, or small-scale informal data gathering rather than a large, statistically representative study.
Key Takeaways
- Exploratory research clarifies what's worth investigating further when a problem isn't yet well understood, often through qualitative methods.
- Descriptive research accurately describes population characteristics, typically through a representative survey.
- Causal research establishes whether one variable actually causes a change in another, typically through a controlled experiment.
- Drawing causal conclusions from descriptive correlational data is a common mistake, since correlation cannot rule out reversed causation.