Qualitative versus quantitative

The literature on methodology distinguishes between qualitative and quantitative research methods. The phrase ‘qualitative’ does not refer to the quality of methods. Qualitative methods are those that are oriented at the discovery of qualities of things, that is, the properties of objects, phenomena, situations, people, meanings and events. In contrast, quantitative methods are oriented at the number or amount of these qualities. This chapter will discuss a number of qualitative research methods that can be used in business problem-solving (BPS) projects. For quantitative research methods we refer the reader to text books on social science methodology such as Cooper and Schindler (2003) and Ader and Mellenbergh (1999).

Imagine a marketing manager who would like to know the opinions of potential customers about a television commercial. He could ask some respondents to talk freely about their feelings with regard to the commercial, their associations, what they like about it and what not, and so on. Such a study would be qualitative in nature, since it aims to uncover the characteristics of people, in this case their attitude towards the commercial. The same marketing manager could also use a standardized questionnaire and ask respondents to express the degree to which they understand and like the commercial on a five-point scale. Such a study would be quantitative in nature since it measures the amount of a particular property.

Qualitative research methods are particularly important if one intends to study people, groups, organizations and societies.