Research:

A research is a systematic and creative work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge.
It involves collection, organization and analysis of information to increase understanding of
topic or issue. A research project may be an expansion on past work in the field.

Purpose of Research:
The purpose of research is therefore to what is known, what is not and what we can develop
further. Although research can take many forms, there are three main purpose of research
1. Exploratory:
Exploratory research is the first research to be conducted around a problem that has not
been clearly defined. Exploratory research therefore aims to gain a better understanding of
the exact nature of the problem and not provide conclusive answer to the problem itself.
2. Descriptive:
Descriptive research expands a knowledge of a research problem or phenomenon by
describing it according to its characteristics and population. Descriptive research focuses on
the ‘how’ and ‘what’ but not the ‘why’.
3. Explanatory:
Explanatory research also referred to as casual research, is conducted to determine how
variable interacts. Explanatory research deals with the ‘why’ of research questions and is
therefore based on experiments.

Types of Research:
Research can be divided into two main type’s basic research and applied research
1. Basic Research:
Basic research also known as pure research, is an original investigation into the reasons
behind a process, phenomenon or particular event. It focuses on generating knowledge
around existing basic principles. Basic research is generally consider non-commercial
research because it does not focus on solving practical problems, and has no immediate
benefits or ways it can be applied.
2. Applied Research:
Applied research investigates well known theories and principles in order to enhance
knowledge around a practical aim. Because of this, applied research focuses on solving real
life problems by deriving knowledge which has an immediate applications.
Open Ended Questionnaire:
Open ended questionnaire are free form survey questions that allows respondent to answer
in open text format so that they can answer based on their complete knowledge, feeling and
understanding. It means that the response to this question is not limited to a set of options.
Respondents like open-ended questionnaire as they get 100% control over what they want to
respond to, and they don’t feel restricted by the limited number of options. The beauty of
open-ended questionnaire is that they can never be a one word answer. They will either be
in the form of lists, sentences or something longer like speech/paragraph.

Example:
Please describe a scenario where our online marketplace help you make day to day
purchases

Closed Ended Questionnaire:

In close ended questionnaire, questions that can only be answered by selecting from a
limited number of options usually multiples choice questions such as yes or no, or rating
scale (e.g. from strongly agree to strongly disagree).

Types of Close Ended Questionnaire:

1. Dichotomous Questions:
The close ended questions are indicative questions that can be answer either in one of the
two ways, ‘’Yes’’ or ‘’No’’, or ‘’True’’ or ‘’False’’
Example:
What do you think about KFC?
 Love it
 Hate it

2. Multiples Choice Questions:

A multiple choice close ended questions are easy and flexible and help the researcher to
obtain data that is clean and easy to analyze. It typically consist of stem – the questions,
correct answer, closest alternative and distractors,
Example:
Which Credit Card do you use?
 Master Card
 Visa
 Union Pay
 Pay Pak
