Disadvantages of Exploratory Research

Exploratory research is a kind of research carried out for an issue which has not been clearly defined. It assists to identify the best research design, data collection method and selection of subjects. The outcomes are not generally helpful for decision-making by themselves, however they can offer significant clues about a given situation.

Exploratory work could be very informal, depending on secondary research such as researching accessible literature and/or data, or qualitative  techniques like informal discussions with consumers, employees, management or competitors.

Main Disadvantages of Exploratory Research Design

Exploratory research won’t be able to replace conclusive, quantitative research. Having said that, companies frequently use what should be exploratory studies as final, conclusive research projects. This may lead to wrong decisions. What is important to keep in mind about exploratory research methods is that they have limitations. The majority of of them supply qualitative information, and interpretation of the findings usually is judgmental. For instance, the results from projective methods can be bizarre. Projective techniques and depth interviews were commonly used decades ago by professionals who classified themselves as motivational researchers. They generated some intriguing and occasionally bizarre hypotheses about what was in the buyer’s head, such as:

• A lady is extremely serious when she bakes a cake since unconsciously she is going through the symbolic act of giving birth.
• A guy purchases a convertible as an alternative mistress.
• Guys who put on suspenders are responding to an conflicting castration complex.

Findings determined by qualitative research could be susceptible to significant interpreter bias. Conclusions from focus group interviews could be unclear. How should a face expression or nod of the head be interpreted? Have subjects completely understood the idea or concept behind a nonexistent item? Have participants overstated their curiosity since they have a tendency to like all new items? Due to these kinds of issues in interpretation, exploratory findings should be regarded as preliminary.

One other issue with exploratory methods relates to the capability to make forecasts from the results. The majority of exploratory methods make use of modest samples, that might not be representative since they have not been chosen on a probability basis. Case studies, for instance, could have been selected simply because they represent extremely good or very bad examples of a scenario as opposed to the average situation.

Before you take a decision you need to carry out a quantitative study having an adequate sample to make sure that measurement will be precise. The biggest drawback of exploratory research is that a good idea with promise could be declined due to conclusions at the exploratory stage. On the contrary, when everything appears good in the exploratory stage, the temptation is to market the product without additional research. Instead, after completing exploratory work, management must decide whether the advantages of the additional information would be worth the cost of further study. Generally when a major commitment of resources is at risk, performing the quantitative study is definitely worth the effort. Sometimes good marketing research only documents the obvious. However, the objective of company is to generate a profit, and decision makers want to be certain that they have made the right choice.

In the above text, we have discussed what are the disadvantages of exploratory research design? This is not to state that exploratory work does not have worth; it merely implies that such research won’t be able to provide what it doesn’t promise. The main advantage of exploratory designs is that it produces insights and describes the marketing problems for hypothesis testing in future research. Thus, exploratory research is very useful, however it needs to be used with caution. Related: Advantages of Exploratory Research