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...