Differences Between Quantitative And Qualitative Research Methods

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Research Methods in Marketing
Introduction
When a business organization wants to introduce a new product or venture into a new market, it is advisable for the management to carry out a research to enable them understand which marketing strategy they would use to enable them get the market share. There are different research methods that can be used when conducting a research. However, it is important to note that not all research methods can be used at the same time; different methods are meant for different market niche. The research method that will be used by an organization depends on the type of information that the organization would wish to find out from their potential customers, competitors, and or the targeted market. Information required can be accessed from either primary or secondary sources. A researcher can either decide to use qualitative or quantitative methods of research (Bernard, and Harvey Russell Bernard 2).
This paper explores the differences between qualitative and quantitative research methods and how they have been used in the marketing research.
Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative Research methods
Their Definitions
In most cases, the individuals who undertake a research method to not understand the differences between quantitative and qualitative research methods though they would always use them in their researches. For a start it would be prudent to define these two research methods. According to Tracy, Quantitative research method refers to a form of research that relies mostly on natural sciences that provide numerical data and tangible or hard facts (7). More often than not, this research method normally aims at finding out or establishing the cause and effect of the relationship between the two available variables through the use of mathematical, statistical and computational methods. Most importantly to note is that the data that has been collected from the field can be put into different categories or different ranks or might as well be measured using the units of measurements. The data collected from the field can be represented on a graph, making the data gathered easier for the researcher to analyze and interpret. On the other hand, Bernard and Harvey Russell Bernard define Quantitative research method, as one that gives insightful and understanding of the problem setting (7). Qualitative research method exploratory and unstructured research method that dissects very complex phenomena that cannot be easily elucidated using the quantitative research method. It is important to note that the data that has been gotten from the qualitative research is used to generate ideas or hypothesis that will be used later in the quantitative research. In addition to that, qualitative research method is mostly used by the researcher to enable him or her gain an in-depth understanding of human behavior, motivations, intentions, experience, attitudes, and feelings through observation and interpretation to enable researcher understand how people think and feel. Qualitative is a form of research where the researchers rely mostly on the views of the clients. Qualitative research method consists of ethnography, case study, grounded theory, historical and phenomenology (Tracy 98).
Other Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods
Other differences in their definitions, these two research methods also differ on the following ways: Qualitative research is a purposive sampling, in sampling research only a small size of the population is selected to enable the researcher get the desired result or concept. On the other hand, quantitative research mostly rely on the random sampling; a large portion of the population is chosen for the research purpose to enable the researcher extrapolate the result to the entire population. Another difference between these two research methods is that verbal data are always used in qualitative research, while in quantitative research the data that has been gathered is measurable in quantitative research. The other difference between these two types of research methods was the hypothesis generated. In quantitative research, the hypothesis generated is tested by deductive reasoning, while hypothesis generated by via qualitative method is tested by inductive reasoning. Another difference between these research methods is based on the elements used in the analysis. For instance, the elements that are used in the analysis of quantitative research is a numerical data, while on the other hand, the elements that are used in the analysis of qualitative research include words, objects and pictures (Bernard and Harvey Russell Bernard).
Explanation of Research Methods (Quantitative and Qualitative) in the Two Studies Reported in the Articles
The effects of affective and cognitive elaborations from Facebook posts on
Consumer attitude formation
In this study, the researcher used the quantitative research method to find out the effects of affective and cognitive elaborations of from Facebok posts on consumer attitude formation. It is quantitative because the researcher used a random sampling of his or targeted population was. In addition to that the experimental and stimuli research method that was used is always synonymous with the quantitative research method.
Experimental Design and Stimuli
This type research can be categorized as a quantitative research method because experimentation refers to empirical testing of ...