3.

2 Research Design
Akthar (2016:68) defines research
design as the structure, plan and
strategy worked out by a research to
obtain the answers for the research
questions. The three types of
research design are discussed below.
Descriptive Research
Descriptive research focuses mainly on the
‘what’ instead of the ‘how’ of a problem
according to Nassaji (2015:130). This method’s
goal is to define and depict a paradox and its
attributes. As such, to gather data observations
and surveys are used. Qualitative data that has
been collected is usually analysed using
quantitative methods.
Exploratory Research
According to Manerikar (2014:95), exploratory
research is the initial research done to resolve
the nature of a problem. It allows a precise
understating of a problem to researchers and
is a flexible creative manner to understand the
problem. Usual methods of data collection are
interviews of individuals and group
discussions.
Explanatory Research
Freitas et al. (2016:7) state that the intent of
explanatory research is to illuminate
fundamental factors regarding the existence of
some phenomena and to establish the link
between the aspects of their environment. It
provides the base to study correlation
between variables and dependency between
variables and tries to explain the factors
behind phenomena.