This document discusses exploratory research, which is conducted when a problem has not been clearly defined. It often relies on secondary research like literature reviews or qualitative approaches like interviews. The purpose is to help determine the best research design and methods. Some key aspects of exploratory research discussed are using the internet for more interactive methods, focusing on understanding social phenomena, generating hypotheses, and exploring new topics or angles. Specific methods mentioned for implementing exploratory research include focus groups, secondary research, expert surveys, and open-ended questions.

1. Exploratory Research
Research Methodology

2. Prepared By
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Manu Melwin Joy
Assistant Professor
Ilahia School of Management Studies
Kerala, India.
Phone – 9744551114
Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com

3. Exploratory Research
• Exploratory research is
research conducted for a
problem that has not been
clearly defined. It often occurs
before we know enough to
make conceptual distinctions
or posit an explanatory
relationship. Exploratory
research helps determine the
best research design, data
collection method and
selection of subjects.

4. Exploratory Research
• Exploratory research often
relies on secondary research
such as reviewing available
literature and/or data, or
qualitative approaches such as
informal discussions with
consumers, employees,
management or competitors,
and more formal approaches
through in-depth interviews,
focus groups, projective
methods, case studies or pilot
studies.

5. Exploratory Research
• The Internet allows for research
methods that are more interactive
in nature. For example, RSS feeds
efficiently supply researchers with
up-to-date information; major
search engine search results may
be sent by email to researchers by
services such as Google Alerts;
comprehensive search results are
tracked over lengthy periods of
time by services such as Google
Trends; and websites may be
created to attract worldwide
feedback on any subject.

6. Exploratory Research
• Social exploratory research
"seeks to find out how people
get along in the setting under
question, what meanings they
give to their actions, and what
issues concern them. The goal
is to learn 'what is going on
here?' and to investigate social
phenomena without explicit
expectations." (Russell K.
Schutt, "Investigating the Social
World," 5th ed.).

7. Exploratory Research
• Exploratory research is used
when problems are in a
preliminary stage.[3]
Exploratory research is used
when the topic or issue is new
and when data is difficult to
collect. Exploratory research is
flexible and can address
research questions of all types
(what, why, how). Exploratory
research is often used to
generate formal hypotheses.

8. Exploratory Research
• To make this a little more
understandable, imagine you
are blindfolded or placed into
a room without light. You are
not told if something is in the
room, but you have a
suspicion there is something
in there. You shuffle out
slowly into the room,
exploring with the tips of
your fingers until you find
something.

9. Exploratory Research
• Exploratory research can come in
two big forms: either a new topic
or a new angle. A new topic is
often unexpected and startling in
its findings. For example,
American psychologist John
Watson really began his
behaviorism research with a new
topic on the study of human
behaviors and learning: rats!
Because humans have brains and
rats have brains, it makes a certain
kind of sense. There was an
attempt to find the universal laws
of learning in all brains.

10. Exploratory Research
• New angles can come from new
ways of looking at things, either
from a theoretical perspective
or a new way of measuring
something. For instance,
computers have allowed large
populations to be looked at.
Old experiments can now
involve thousands of people
from around the globe instead
of a few people from the local
train station.

11. 4 Ways to Implement Exploratory
Research into a Research Plan
• Focus Groups: A focus group
most commonly contains 8 to
12 people fitting the
description of the target
sample group and asks them
specific questions on the issues
and subjects being researched.
Sometimes, focus groups will
also host interactive exercises
during the session and request
feedback on what was given.

12. 4 Ways to Implement Exploratory
Research into a Research Plan
• Secondary Research: It is
almost impossible to come up
with a research topic that
hasn’t been conducted before.
Beyond this, when it comes to
designing your survey and
research plan, it is usually not
best to reinvent the wheel. All
research strategies can benefit
from reviewing similar studies
taken and learning from their
results.

13. 4 Ways to Implement Exploratory
Research into a Research Plan
• Expert Surveys: Expert surveys
allow us to gain information
from specialists in a field that
we are less qualified or
knowledgeable in. For example,
if I was tasked with surveying
the public’s stance and
awareness on environmental
issues, I could create a
preliminary expert survey for a
selected group of
environmental authorities.

14. 4 Ways to Implement Exploratory
Research into a Research Plan
• Open-Ended Questions: All open-
ended questions in your survey are
exploratory in nature. The mere
fact that you allow respondents to
provide any feedback they please,
gives you the opportunity to gain
insights on topics you haven’t
previously thought of. Adding a few
open-ended questions in surveys
with large amounts of respondents
can be somewhat difficult and
time-consuming to sort through,
but it can indicate important trends
and opinions for further research.