Exploratory research is an initial form of research that defines the scope and nature of a research problem, which needs to be clearly defined and understood. It enables us to explore a research topic with varying levels of depth using interpretive research methods.

It addresses questions like “what,” “why,” or “how” (e.g., “what is the problem?” or “what is the purpose?”) without being restrictive in nature.

Exploratory research is also known by the following names:

• Formative research
• Formulative research
• Grounded theory research
• Interpretive research
• Strategic research

Exploratory research helps gather preliminary information and gain a greater understanding of an issue before quantifying mass responses into statistically inferable data and forms the foundation for future, more specific research.

As the results of exploratory research do not have to be conclusive, it supports the creation of a solid knowledge base for subsequent assessments.

In addition, exploratory research techniques provide critical information to researchers, so they know at an early stage whether it is worth investing the efforts and resources in a project.

Keep reading this easy guide to learn more about exploratory market research.

What is Exploratory Market Research?

Exploratory market research is part of exploratory research—a type of market research conducted using a variety of qualitative research methods to establish a strong foundation for ideation, concept development, and creative executions.

Exploratory research helps collect general information about a topic, generate hypotheses, and identify key issues.

For instance, it enables qualitative researchers to investigate an ill-defined problem or one that has been under-investigated. Another example is exploratory social research that examines social phenomena without definitive expectations.

Exploratory studies use consumer and expert interviews, which are quite popular as a primary data collection method.

Additionally, focus groups, observation methods, and surveys are used to collect primary data for these studies. Survey software is especially helpful for sending surveys when you need insights on a phenomenon or problem before going ahead with further research.

Characteristics of Exploratory Research

Here are the key characteristics of exploratory research:

The First Stage in the Research Process: In a longer research journey, the first step begins with exploratory research, which is followed up with explanatory research or research involving structured data collection tools.

Unstructured Research: Exploratory research relies on an unstructured approach, such as asking open-ended questions instead of using structured or standardized data collection tools to explore different dimensions of interest and discover new information.

Highly Interactive, Low-cost Research Methods: Exploratory research is inexpensive and facilitates a high degree of interactivity between a researcher and participants by motivating them to provide in-depth information.

Long Duration: As finding the right people to participate in research takes time, exploratory research runs longer when looking for in-depth information or new insights.

No Hard and Fast Rules: The purpose of exploratory research is not to reach a conclusion but explore a problem and establish a strong foundation for conducting next-level research.

A Qualitative Approach: Generally, exploratory research creates qualitative data derived from consumer behavior-related patterns, events, and interpretations rather than quantitative research data.

Why is Exploratory Research Important?

Exploratory research is crucial to understanding the root causes of business problems and establishing objectives for continual development studies.

It is difficult to guide the question-building process and survey design without using exploratory research because there is a possible risk of research heading in the wrong direction.

In cases where a topic is new or a company lacks proper information on a research problem, exploratory research helps precisely formulate the problem, discover vital insights, and eliminate impractical ideas.

Exploratory research also refines social work practice (through exploratory qualitative research) and provides fresh ideas on communicating business value to potential customers when marketing a product or service.

In addition, data scientists use exploratory data analysis (EDA) to perform initial investigations on data sets and summarize their main characteristics.

Furthermore, it provides direction for a more formal research effort like conducting a structured descriptive study after getting to know the key decision-makers in a target market.

When Should You Use Exploratory Research?

When should you use exploratory research? Consider it if your goal is to achieve any of the following:

• Collect background information on problem areas
• Define a marketing problem more precisely (or when you are unsure about the problem)
• Develop hypotheses
• Gain significant insights into a problem-solving approach
• Identify alternative courses of action
• Investigate difficult-to-articulate issues
• Isolate specific variables and their relationships for later analysis
• Recognize and explore concepts during the new product development stage
• Study sensitive issues to get the perspectives of respondents
• Test the feasibility of ideas

Exploratory Research Design

A research design refers to the overall plan or framework, including research techniques and tools used for a research project.

Here are the three main research designs:

• Causal research design (studies the cause-effect relationship among a group of variables)
• Descriptive research design
• Exploratory research design

Exploratory research design is informal and unstructured and belongs to the beginning stage of a research project. It focuses on exploration using various methods, such as accessing published reports (secondary data), conducting focus groups, reviewing case studies, and undertaking interviews with experts.

Instead of providing decisive answers, it is known for yielding powerful insights and defining the direction for the rest of the research project. Moreover, when a hypothesis has unknown constructs, the exploratory design provides the adaptability and flexibility to plan a formal research design to test the hypothesis.

An exploratory research marketing study may not have a rigorous methodology like a conclusive research study. However, it works well even if a researcher does not have prior knowledge or when it is hard to pinpoint the research direction.

Exploratory Research Process

Typically, the exploratory research process includes the following steps:

Define the research problem: Identifying the issue at hand is necessary to conduct the research efficiently and effectively.

Build a hypothesis: A hypothesis provides a direction to your research. Based on the outcome of your research study, you can prove or refute the hypothesis later.

Employ research procedures: Different research methods/procedures may be employed to gather a wide variety of information depending on budget, timeline, and research objectives. Marketers may choose one or additional procedures, including:

• Expert surveys
• Focus groups
• Open-ended questions
• Secondary research (based on previous studies)

Collect data: Data collection (qualitative or quantitative data) depends on the methods chosen to meet a project’s needs. For example, open-ended questions can be posed (online and in person) to individuals, while expert surveys can be sent to educational and professional organizations.

Determine results: Exploratory research results provide valuable feedback that can be evaluated for accuracy and validity and used for devising new ways to apply industry ideas and principles in different business scenarios.

The results from focus groups, surveys, etc., for marketing campaigns, are also helpful in conducting additional research or product revamping, if necessary.

Get Customized Market Reports     Contact us to know more!

How is Exploratory Research Different From Other Types of Market Research?

A quality research strategy usually includes aspects of different types of market research, such as causal research, descriptive research, and exploratory research.

In the larger context of the marketing research process, exploratory research clarifies hypotheses and research problems and establishes research priorities.

Causal (also known as “experimental research” and “explanatory research”) research explains the causes and consequences of a well-defined problem.

In contrast, exploratory research helps develop a better understanding of an under-researched problem when no past data or background knowledge is available for reference.

Furthermore, descriptive research is mostly pre-planned and structured and uses probability sampling. On the other hand, exploratory research is flexible and unstructured; it also uses non-probability sampling and builds a foundation for descriptive research.

Advantages of Exploratory Research

Whether it is gaining a deeper understanding of an internal business problem or vetting new concepts and ideas, exploratory research provides several benefits, including but not limited to the following:

Foundation: Exploratory research lays the groundwork for further investigation and studies. For example, an exploratory study often termed a “pilot study” and “feasibility study,” provides vital information to support a more robust evaluation and progress to an effectiveness study.

Flexibility: During the research process, a marketer has the flexibility to change direction in response to new information.

Insights: Quality and insightful information gained from exploratory research leads to further research as applicable.

Low cost: This type of research is carried out at a low cost on most occasions.

Time-saver: By determining at an early stage whether a research project is worth pursuing, researchers can check the feasibility of working on the project and potentially save time and resources.

Disadvantages of Exploratory Research

Due to the indecisive nature of research findings and the small sample size, exploratory research does have some downsides.

Here are the major disadvantages of exploratory research:

• Data obtained from secondary sources may be obsolete.
• Generally offers qualitative data, which can be biased or judgmental.
• Inconclusive findings are not useful for decision-making at a practical level.
• Modest samples may be too small to represent the target population adequately.
• There are no specific conclusions.

Exploratory Research Methods

Exploratory research uses primary and secondary research methods, with qualitative methods, such as focus groups and in-depth interviews, widely used for this type of research.

Primary research methods

This research gathers information directly from an individual or a group. Primary research focuses on collecting information about a problem requiring in-depth analysis.

• Depth interviews
• Focus groups
• Observation methods
• Polls/surveys (including expert opinion surveys/experience surveys)
• User interviews (such as open-ended user interviews for exploratory analysis in UX research)

Secondary Research Methods

Secondary or desk research uses existing resources to collect information for the subject under study.

For example, secondary market research uses academic papers, articles, books, case studies, industry newsletters, syndicated reports, trade journals or magazines, etc.

• Case study research (preferred by health organizations and the social science sector)
• Literature research (includes academic and trade literature and information sourced from commercial and government databases, libraries, magazines, and newspapers)
• Online research (easiest and fastest way to collect data from online sources like Google Scholar, blogs, discussion forums, and websites)
• Syndicated research

Other well-known exploratory research methods include diary studies, field research, observation methods, and qualitative analyses.

Get Customized Market Reports     Contact us to know more!

Examples of Exploratory Research

Companies often use exploratory research studies to understand purchase intent and consumption habits and redefine target positioning for product categories. For instance, an exploratory study is useful for studying the main factors affecting the adoption of mobile technology in the higher education market.

One more example is an exploratory study of the human resource information system (HRIS) professional’s role in supporting HR functions and transforming HR activities in an organization.

Let us look at a couple of other exploratory research examples:

Concept Design

If there is a need to change the packaging for an existing ready-to-eat meal product, exploratory research via focus groups supports a company in assessing the thoughts and views of ready-to-eat meal product buyers on the current design, appealing/non-appealing factors, aesthetics, etc.

Additionally, research feedback enables the company to test new concept designs and modify the packaging design for the desired outcome. 

New Product Development

Exploratory research is a starting point for understanding potential users and their needs. It also reveals blind spots based on assumptions and helps marketers respond better to actual user needs.

Moreover, early identification of bad ideas or inappropriate solutions prevents disastrous product development mistakes.

Exploratory research is quite helpful when you want to develop new products, enhance product appeal, or capture insights into pricing a product by performing a competitive analysis on the pricing of comparable goods.

Furthermore, if a certain product is not selling, conducting preliminary exploratory research on possible reasons for poor sales is recommended before conducting deeper, explanatory research. 

Summing Up

Exploratory research occupies the front end of total research design and is a flexible, versatile type of market research.

Market research professionals employ exploratory research as a first step or a stand-alone approach to better understand a previously unknown subject through independent exploration, develop questions and research hypotheses for subsequent investigation, narrow down required data, etc.  

Exploratory studies are primarily used to provide comprehensive insights and answers to many pressing research questions.

Although exploratory research does not provide enough data to make significant market decisions, it helps form a foundation to build improved research objectives for further studies.

As a part of the broader exploratory research, exploratory market research enables a researcher to choose the right research design and find important variables for the analysis, manage uncertainty, and reduce risk.

It has been rightly said that “the more you know, the more you can grow.”

Exploratory market research does not lead to conclusive answers but proposes possible solutions and valuable insights to determine the correct course of action for future research and best allocate resources.

Get a Comprehensive Range of Custom Market Research Services!

Blackridge Research & Consulting offers actionable insights about current market scenario. Our services include and is not limited to:

• Market Analysis and Assessment
• Customer Profiling and Insights
• Product and Strategy Development
• Business Plan Preparation
• Market Entry and Development
• Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) Research
• Quantitative and Qualitative Research
• Designing and Conducting Surveys
• Pricing Research
• Risk Analysis and Mitigation

Our industry expertise and your commitment towards business goals ensures best-in-class timeliness and quality on various projects.

Contact us today to get started with research at special offer prices.