Exploratory Research

When a researcher wants to deal with a new issue or try to begin a new research is called exploratory research. The objective of such research is to formulate very precise questions that can answer in future research. It might be the first stage of the series of studies.

Initially a research is conducted to explain the nature of the problem. The researchers having limited amount of experience or knowledge about the issues could pick the exploratory research as a preliminary step which could be very useful to ensure more conclusive study in future. Exploratory research findings will emphasize the researcher to learn more about the particular problem in subsequent conclusive studies. Definite answers cannot be produced by exploratory research. It has very few guidelines to follow so that it is difficult to conduct.

Exploratory research could specifically produce some goals which are as follows:

1. Familiarity with basic details, settings and concerns.
2. Well grounded picture of the situation be developed.
3. Generation of new ideas & assumption, development of tentative theories or hypothesis.
4. Determine whether study is feasible in future.
5. Issues get refined for more systematic investigation and formulation of new questions.
6. Direction for future research and techniques get developed.

Different sources could be used to get information for exploratory research i.e. i) experience surveys; ii) analysis of secondary data; iii) case studies; and iv) pilot studies.

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