Northumbria University, Faculty of Engineering and Environment Business Information Management

Jonathan Bartlett W15023629

IS0629 Research Methods and Academic Communications

Tutor: Honglei Li

Assignment 2

Submission Date: Monday 4th January 2016

Word Count: 2,496 Research is a method of achieving new knowledge to improve practice and learning through the acquisition of facts. It is a scientific process which aims to prove a theory (Business Dictionary, 2015). Within research there are different types; the main two being quantitative research and qualitative research. In basic terms qualitative is exploratory research and quantitative is a way to quantify an answer (Wyse, 2011). This essay will provide explanations of differences between the two methods. This will be done through a discussion of methodologies for both qualitative and quantitative research. The essay will discuss characteristics of both types of research including examples of types of methods and data collection, and analysis techniques used in each. An example of a research design project will be included to identify the benefits and limitations of one type; the author of this assignment has chosen to demonstrate a quantitative method of research.

Qualitative research will be explored first. Bauman and Greenberg (1992) explain how qualitative research is used to find out what people think. It is an effective was to gather opinions and can be used to get people to talk about issues being explored. It allows the researcher to understand the participants’ motivations and feelings. It allows researchers to use a variety of many methods to carry out the research.

One common method of qualitative data collection is the use of interviews (Bauman and Greenberg, 1992). Kvale (1996) describes an interview as a ‘meeting in