Applied research & Pure Research

Applied research and pure research

Is research always problem based?

There are always two ways to perform a particular task. One way is unstructured, unplanned and hazardous while the other way is structured and planned way of doing things. Scientists, researcher and even manager believe in doing thinks planned and structured way.

A research project always starts with a question, i.e., what is the purpose of research? History shows that science typically has its beginning in pragmatic problems of real life. The first ever invention of science is called a Wheel which is a solution to the problem of resistivity while moving objects. A watch is a solution to the problem of measuring time. An electric bulb is a solution to the problem of light in darkness.

The above mentioned are examples from scientific or basic research. In the field of business research, it is even more specific to answer business related questions. For example the purpose of a research study may be, Why sales are doping in a particular area? What will be the expected response of customers to a new product? What are the key factors of dropping share price of a company even it is running profitably?

Considering all of the above mentioned examples we can easily draw a conclusion that Whether basic or applied, simple or complex, all researches should be problem based and at the end provide answer to some question, the problem.

Difference between Applied and Pure Research

We can divide research in to four types, reporting, description, explanation and prediction.

At the most elementary level, an inquiry may be made only to provide an account or summation of some data, perhaps statistic. For example, the sales record of different locations and different products for the past six months. This is called reporting.

Description tries to discover answers to the questions of who, what, when, where and sometimes how. At this level, the researcher attempts to describe or define a subject, often by creating a profile of a group of problems, people or event.

The third type explanation goes beyond description and attempts to explain the reasons of the phenomenon that the descriptive study only observe. Here the researcher used theories or at least hypotheses to account for the forces that caused a certain phenomenon to occur. Explanation tries to explain relationship between different variables interacting and producing a particular type of result.

At its final level research is called prediction. We by explanation we can understand occurrence of an event we can easily predict when will it occur again. So when we can predict we can control it by the controllable variables interacting in the occurrence of an event.

Basic research is of the opinion that the first two types, i.e., reporting and description are not fall in the boundary of research while the applied science consider all above types and falling in the boundary of research.

On other define research as “systematic, controlled, empirical and critical investigation of natural phenomena guided by theory and hypotheses about the presumed relations among such phenomena”. The classical concept of basic research does call for a hypothesis, but in applied research, this narrow definition omits at least the type investigations, i.e., reporting and describing which are highly valued in respect of applied research. Exploratory study based on reporting and describing important to applied research is called merely descriptive by the purists.

According to the applied researchers “research is a systematic inquiry aimed at providing information to solve problems”, and “the business research is systematic inquiry that provide information to guide business decision making process”. And we already know that decision-making is involved when we face a problematic situation of any kind.