Qualitative Vs Quantitative Research

. Introduction. Marketing, business, criminal justice, economics, political science and more all depends upon evidence and information gathered from research. Research skills and abilities are the key for better decision making. Basic difference between a successful decision and disastrous one is understanding how to source, analyze and integrate information effectively. There are three main research methodology paradigms namely Qualitative, Quantitative and mixed. Quantitative paradigm was dominant in most of the 20th century. The qualitative paradigm came of age as an alternative to the quantitative paradigm in 1980s, and it was often considered as opposite of quantitative research. Mixed research paradigms as its name suggested it is combination

Quantitative Research Application. It is used to quantify the problem by generating numerical data or data that can be transformed in to useable statistics. The researcher analyses the data with the help of statistics and is hoping the numbers will yield an unbiased result which can be generalized to some larger population. In social sciences, quantitative research is widely used in demography, marketing, economics, community health, gender, and political science, and is less frequently in anthropology and history. For example before a product is launched to the larger markets companies look at the quantitative research to determine how many units they should produce.

6. Differences between Qualitative and Quantitative research. The basic differences between quantitative and qualitative research lie in methods and instruments they apply, types of data they collect and generate. In order to better understand differences between Qualitative and Quantitative research methodologies few other factors, variables, features and characteristics will be

In qualitative research aim is complete and its detailed description is available and researcher might know in advance what he is looking. In Quantitative research aim is to classify features, construct statistical models, count them and verify them in an attempt to explain what is observed. Researcher clearly knows what he is looking in advance.

(iv) Data. Data is gathered in the form of pictures, objects and words and is organized using tables, graphs, or figures to show trends, relationships, or differences among variables in Qualitative research, while in quantitative research data is in the form of numbers and statistics and tools used for collection of data are rulers ,balances, charts or equipment and results are measurable (Fig 1.1).

Fig 1.1 Data collection difference between Quantitative and Qualitative research

7. Conclusion. Summarizing all the qualitative and quantitative approaches to research allow a different perspective of situations or phenomena. Both approaches to research are highly informative, especially if used in combination. Each approach has its benefits and demerits, and application of both can help in better understanding to which research findings can be applied by policy-makers. Careful selection of variables of qualitative analysis will result in better quantitative