Advantages and Disadvantages of Qualitative Research

Advantages and Disadvantages of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is conducted on a less structured methodology and is used to obtain detailed information about the main rationales and motivations for clients' behaviour. Their ultimate goal is a deep understanding of the topic, issue or problem from an individual point of view. Qualitative research is defined as any form of information gathering designed to describe the process, and not for its prediction, as in the case of quantitative research. Often, qualitative research is used to create hypotheses that are then tested using quantitative research.

Advantages of quality research

Developing a survey when you do not know the general views, opinions or even the vocabulary of the interviewed group is like walking in a blindfolded street: You know where to go, but are afraid to start a journey without first studying the situation. Qualitative research is of a fact-finding nature, helping to obtain more detailed information on a topic or issue. Then you can formulate a hypothesis before collecting data that will help to decide whether this hypothesis is correct or not.

Disadvantages of qualitative research

While qualitative research can provide important and detailed information on a topic or issue, they are often conducted among a small number of people (samples). This means that qualitative research is limited only to the description of the subject of the survey, but cannot help to make a decision or come to a definite conclusion. For example, qualitative research will help to understand how people describe the design of the packaging of your product, it will not give an idea of which design is more attractive.