QUANTITATIVE VS QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

PERHAPS IT WAS A WONDERFUL ARTICLE BY SAMRAT"THE KING OF IB" & I ALSO HAVE SOMETHING TO CONTRIBUTE TO IT:

QUANTITATIVE research is numerically oriented and often involves statistical analysis. For example, a bank might ask its customers to rate its overall service as either excellent, good, poor or very poor. This will provide quantitative inf. that can be analysed statistically. The main rule is that every respondent is asked the same series of structured questions.
Perhaps the most common technique for this is‘market research survey’. Quantitative surveys can be conducted by using post (self-completion), face-to-face ,telephone, email or web . The questionnaire is one of the more common tools for collecting data from a survey

Qualitative research provides an understanding of how or why things are as they are. For example, a Market Researcher may stop a consumer who has purchased a particular type of bread and ask him or her why that type of bread was chosen. Unlike quantitative research there are no fixed set of questions but, instead, a topic guide is used to explore various issues in-depth. The discussion between the interviewer & the respondent is largely determined by the respondents' own thoughts and feelings.IT is mostly done face-to-face. One of the best-known techniques is market research group discussions (or focus groups). These are usually made up of 6- 8 targeted respondents, a research moderator who ask’s the required questions, draw out answers, and encourage discussion, In addition, qualitative research can also be conducted on a ‘one on one’ basis i.e. an in-depth interview with a trained executive interviewer and one respondent, a paired depth (two respondents), a triad (three respondents) and a mini group discussion (4-5 respondents).