Purposes of Research Types

EXPLORATORY Become familiar with the basic facts, setting, and concerns Create a general mental
picture of conditions Formulate and focus questions for future research Generate new ideas,
conjectures, or hypotheses Determine the feasibility of conducting research Develop techniques for
measuring and locating future data

DESCRIPTIVE Provide a detailed, highly accurate picture Locate new data that contradict past data
Create a set of categories or classify types Clarify a sequence of steps or stages Document a causal
process or mechanism Report on the background or context of a situation

EXPLANATORY Test a theory’s predictions or principle Elaborate and enrich a theory’s explanation
Extend a theory to new issues or topics Support or refute an explanation or prediction Link issues or
topics to a general principle Determine which of several explanations is best

Case-study research Research that is an in-depth examination of an extensive amount of information

about very few units or cases for one period or across multiple periods of time

Case study research has the following six strengths:18 1. Conceptual validity.Case studies help to “flush
out” and identify concepts/variables that are of greatest interest and move toward their core or
essential meaning in abstract theory. 2. Heuristic impact. Case studies are highly heuristic (i.e., providing
further learning, discovery, or problem solving). They help with constructing new theories, developing or
extending concepts, and exploring the boundaries among related concepts. 3. Causal mechanisms
identification. Case studies have the ability to make visible the details of social processes and
mechanisms by which one factor affects others. 4. Ability to capture complexity and trace
processes.Case studies can effectively depict highly complex, multiple-factor events/situations and trace
processes over time and space. 5. Calibration. Case studies enable researchers to adjust measures of
abstract concepts to dependable, lived experiences and concrete standards. 6. Holistic elaboration. Case
studies can elaborate on an entire situation or process holistically and permit the incorpora