Explanatory ResearchResearch Methodology

Prepared By

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Manu Melwin JoyAssistant Professor

Ilahia School of Management Studies

Kerala, India.Phone – 9744551114

Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com

Explanatory Research

• Explanatory Research is

the research whose

primary purpose is to

explain why events

occur to build,

elaborate, extend or test

theory.

Explanatory Research

• Explanatory research

allows the research to

test very specific

theories and make

amends to previous

theories.

Explanatory Research• Exploratory research: A

researcher conducting

exploratory research would

generate ideas of what campus

crime is identified as based on

interviewing victims of campus

crime and evaluating what

circumstances fall under the

criteria of crime at Georgetown.

Explanatory Research• Descriptive Research: A

researcher conducting descriptive

research would look to the

campus crime databases in order

to understand the statistics

behind the crimes being

committed (when, where and

how they were committed).They

would then define the most

common profile of campus crime.

Explanatory Research

• Explanatory Research: A researcher

conducting explanatory research

would test out a theory about

Georgetown campus crime. For

instance, the theory that could be

tested is: if we prevent guests from

entering the library, do student

backpacks and laptops get stolen at

the same rates as when guests

were allowed to enter the library.

Explanatory Research

• A referendum to limit migration from

European Union countries took place

on 10th February of 2014

in Switzerland. In the score of such

event, Alexandre Afonso (2014) and

Paul Haydon (2014) did a simple

analysis of correlation between the

share of migrants population per

canton and the share of yes to anti-

immigration initiative, based on the

results of the referendum.

Explanatory Research• The research question that

lies beneath these analysis

might be “is there a

relationship between the

share of migrant population

in a given community and

the way migration is seen

by its members.

Explanatory Research• Interestingly both the graphic

and map bellow show

that wherever there is less

number of immigrants, the

rejection of immigrants is

greater. It is a clear example of

explanatory research, where the

main objective is identifying the

existence between two or more

variables.