Several types of investigations, but the one that is used when what you want to evaluate has not been studied, so there is not enough information to make any hypothesis on the subject, it is called Exploratory Research.
This type of research is always based on exploration, which means that it is going to interfere, venture or inquire about a topic, or partially, and sometimes totally unknown, for this reason this kind of research should be carried out to cover a wide field in terms of arguments from various personalities, small data that you may have previously collected, or even the experiences of other individuals on the subject at hand.
So it can be said that the meaning of exploratory research is all that search for information in various places or sources, from which data is collected that was previously ignored or not taken into account, collecting the necessary data, in order to go creating and forming the necessary questions for the resolution of any problem, not studied, and in turn collect them in order to diagnose a problem, select from several alternatives that it can provide or simply by discovering new ideas.
What is the methodology of exploratory research?
In order to carry out this type of research, the following aspects must be taken into account, such as defining the topic or problem to be investigated, and conducting surveys with experts, or the general public, since it is not possible to know exactly who will have the most relevant information on the subject, and literary consultations can also be made in works where what is being investigated is mentioned or discussed, in order to see the author's point of view on the problem being studied.
Knowing this, it would be necessary to explain what are the meanings of the methods mentioned in the previous paragraph? Well, they will be defined shortly to clarify any small doubts in this regard.
1. Definition: This can be described as the action of defining something, clarifying doubts regarding a situation, or determining what would be the best solution for any problem that arises, so it can be read, the definition has in its concept many of the qualities of exploratory research, since it seeks the solution of a problem raised, and to define anything, you must first have knowledge of it, so if you do not have the necessary knowledge to do it, you must explore the environment , to find the necessary data for a certain topic.
To get the definition of a topic of which you have no previous knowledge It is obtained based on the search, or research of the same, so we will apply the exploration, carrying out surveys to a certain group of people, of whom we have the belief that they can contribute important data to the questioning, of course generating new on some occasions questions.
2. Pilot surveys: These types of surveys are used to organize the ideas and the questions that are going to be asked in them, giving them an order adapted to obtain the most beneficial data that can contribute to a better development of the research, these being a series of primary questions with which it is practiced, which can also be called trial and error, which gives very good results.
Once all the questions to be asked have been organized and raised in a clearer way, the next method can be started.
3. Expert surveys: These are based on the realization of key questions, to people with enough experience in a direct issue or related to the problem raised, in order to be able to get the most relevant points of view and important on possible solutions, although they could also generate new approaches, because information can be found, which was previously ignored or unknown.
4. Qualitative analysis: This type of analysis emphasizes the qualities of a site, person, structure, among others, for which all its characteristics are analyzed, on many occasions giving new data and on others solving any doubt that was not addressed. Note beforehand, the more the subject is investigated, the more details of it will emerge, giving a broad concept of it.
Types of research
This kind of research can be divided into two branches, of which it is investigated based on the contributions of experts on the subject, or in a literary way.
Experts: This type of exploratory research is based mostly on the second part of the methodology, which is conducting surveys of specific people who have great ability with respect to the subject, or simply have an experience based on years of practice of some activity.
They can be asked very deep questions regarding the problem, since they have extensive knowledge of it, some examples of questions could be:
- Do you think what you do will change the world?
- How do you think it could affect the population, the environment, among others in the future?
And like these, there are thousands of questions that can be asked, to obtain data from a certain person.
Literary: is based more than anything on the main definition of the topic, looking for related data in writings, books and even in notes of old people who are known had relevance in the contribution of some topic.
Analysis of existing data and statistics can also be performed that may reflect a way forward when conducting this research.
Although there are these types of exploratory research, it is preferred to use both at the time of carrying it out, since amas provide very important data for it, and one goes hand in hand with the other.
Most important features
This type of research has very interesting qualities, which facilitate the information search process and make it much more didactic and entertaining. Among them, the ones that stand out the most are:
- Exploratory research builds on what is learned from a subjecta, for which a concept of what was obtained is given, giving it a unique and new meaning.
- This does not necessarily have an order or structure to follow, so it can be processed in the simplest way from any point of view.
- From it you can get solutions to problems that have been previously ignored, of which you can even see how it affects now and will do so in the future.
- They are based mostly on the different points of view of other people, giving you an air of freedom to conceptualize a term.
- The researcher is obliged to innovate with respect to the subject being discussed, since it has not been previously discussed.
And apart from these, there are a lot of positive characteristics of this type of research, which gives the person involved a feeling of satisfaction when culminating with the research, which is precisely at the moment that the person has no doubt about it. regarding the subject you are dealing with.
Purpose of exploratory research
- Contribution of new ideas: By not having any knowledge about any subject, there will be no ideas about it, so with the exploration totally new ideas are obtained, granted by the own merits of the investigated, by the information search methods, such as the reading of literary works that are related to the problem and such as surveys of people who have previous experience or knowledge about it.
- Diagnosing a problem: With it, it is possible to investigate in depth about any problem whose dimensions are not known, nor how it affects a certain community or specific place, giving extensive knowledge about it, and providing possible solutions.
- Alternatives: offers a wide variety of alternatives of all kinds, both in the places, people or texts in which information can be found regarding a problem, and even gives several solutions to it, which may or may not work, these are due to the large number of sources in which you can obtain this data, and of course choosing which is the best for the exact solution to this.