Conducting qualitative research in a thesis

When doing research, you can choose from a whole range of research methods, such as quantitative research, design-oriented research or qualitative research. Each method calls for a different approach. This article provides some tips for qualitative research.

What exactly is qualitative research?

Qualitative research gives you an insight into the how and why. Suppose an organisation asks you to map out their customer satisfaction but there is no information available on how customers experience the service provided. It then makes no sense to draw up a quantitative survey. You first want to find out how customers experience the service offered by your client: are they happy or not and what would they like to improve? You describe the insights you get from this research in running text, not with numbers.

What are the differences between qualitative and quantitative research?

Quantitative research offers insights in numbers. Suppose you have determined the elements of customer satisfaction on the basis of the literature. Then you could, for example, design a survey and use statements on the basis of a Likert scale to ask your research population to which extent they find each element important. These are quantitative results, which enable you to say something about the population. That is why a reliable sample size is so important in quantitative research. You can analyse the results with a statistical program such as SPSS.

Which methods can you use to conduct qualitative research?

People often opt for interviews, but qualitative research includes many more methods, such as focus groups, participant observation and ethnographic studies.

Qualitative research through interviews

In an interview, you speak to one respondent at a time. You draw up a list of questions or topics in advance. A questionnaire gives you, as an interviewer, structure and guidance. It is important to ask the same questions in each interview so that you can compare the results afterwards. This is called a semi-structured interview. You can also opt to focus on a topic list without using a questionnaire. In this case, the questions are asked in a less structured way. However, you can dive into what is being said at a specific moment. You can choose from a variety of interview types: an in-depth interview allows you to question the respondent, but you can also opt for an expert interview, which mainly allows you to gather knowledge from the expert in question. Interviews should always be recorded, transcribed and coded.

Qualitative research through a focus group

A focus group allows you to ask questions to a small group of people, who can give their opinion on a certain topic in the form of a discussion. When you introduce a new product to the market, for example, you can set up a focus group to test how your idea or concept is received and collect feedback to further refine your idea or concept. Make sure that everyone participates in the discussion. In addition to having to transcribe everything that was said, it is also a good idea to record the session. This enables you to observe what happened during the discussion a posteriori and also include non-verbal expressions in your research, such as sighing or finger tapping.

Qualitative research through participant observation

If you opt for participant observation, you conduct field research, watching participants, taking part in the discussion and asking in-depth questions. This form of research is often used when you get started with design thinking or design-oriented research.

Qualitative research through an ethnographic study

In ethnographic research, you observe people’s behaviour. You do not participate in the discussion yourself; you simply watch them, without disrupting the process. This allows you to observe your target group in everyday situations. For example, what is the behaviour of customers who visit a store? What are they looking for? Can they find what they are looking for? Where do they look first? Do they follow the signage? Do they make a purchase? This method often provides valuable insights into the behaviour of your target group that you do not get during interviews and panel discussions.

The advantages of qualitative research

Qualitative research can provide quick insights and in-depth information about a specific topic or problem. In addition, qualitative research can be set up quite easily, but it is not always equally easy to conduct. It takes a lot of time and you have to keep the interaction with your participants at a good level. In addition, the atmosphere and context in which you carry out your research are important. You also have to be alert to what is being said and ask questions on the spot. This means that you carefully have to prepare everything in advance. However, if done well, qualitative research can result in a wealth of information.

The disadvantages of qualitative research

The main disadvantage of qualitative research is that you only get insights from a small group of people and you can only describe the results and insights in running text, as opposed to numbers. Qualitative research can therefore never be used to draw conclusions that apply to the entire population. If you want to launch a new product on the market, for example, you can use qualitative research to find out whether your proposition matches the wishes and needs of the target group. However, you cannot conclude that x% of the population is likely to buy your product. That has to be tested through quantitative research.

How should you set up your qualitative research?

1.     Make sure you have a good topic list

First of all, you need to study the literature to develop a good topic list. A proper literature review reveals what is already available about your chosen topic(s). Subsequently, you can determine the criteria to shape your own research. This is the input for your so-called topic list.

2.     Think about the method that will give you the most input

In the second step you need to think about the method you will use: a semi-structured interview perhaps, or a panel discussion or participant observation? With your topic list, you can then start designing your research. You need to answer questions such as, “Who do I want to involve in my research: customers, employees and/or experts?”, “What kind of information do I want to find out for each group?”, “Which questions am I going to ask to get the information I need?”. This is the input for your research method, in which you have to explain your decisions.

3.     Substantiate your decisions

As mentioned above, you also need to explain your decisions. Your examiners will want to know why you chose this particular research population, which research method you opted for and how you processed the results. They will also want to know to which extent your research is reliable and valid. How you process your research results plays an important role in this. In qualitative research, you should in principle always record your conversations, even if you opt for a focus group. You then need to transcribe all conversations. This is necessary to be able to code and analyse the results.

4.     Substantiate the number of respondents

In qualitative research you do not need a large sample, but of course you want your results to be reliable and valid. Qualitative research is often based on groups of 12, 15 or maximum 20 respondents. The number of interviews you have to conduct is very difficult to establish in advance. It all depends on how many respondents you can reach. Suppose you do your research among customers, then you can probably organise 12 interviews or more. However, if you are looking to interview the purchasing department of an organisation, which only employs 5 people, you will not manage to set up 12 interviews. The most important rule is to look out for saturation. This means that you no longer get new information and that your respondents tend to give similar answers.

5.     Transcribe all conversations and include them as annexes

Transcribing literally means writing out a spoken recording, such as an interview, but leaving out hesitations, stuttering and the like.

Transcribing takes a lot of time; you can spend five hours on a single interview, trying to work everything out. In any case, it is useful to listen to your recording using software that allows you to pause. There is also software available that converts your recording into a transcript, such as the commonly used Amberscript, NVivo and Transcribe.

As you can imagine, automatically converting recordings to text does not work with dialects. The software is often not smart enough for that. In that case, you could use a tool which allows you to pause the recording. oTranscribe, for example, is a simple free web tool that allows you to control your audio more easily and do everything on a single screen.

Tip: always include the transcripts of your interviews in the appendices of your thesis and never put them in your body text. In your body or main text, you should only include the essence of your research. When you need to refer to one or more excerpts from your interviews, you can quote the interviewee or paraphrase an excerpt.

6.     Encode and analyse your transcripts

After you have transcribed your interviews, you can start coding. Coding means you go through the phrases in an open, axial and selective manner. You start with open coding. For this you read through the transcribed interview (sometimes you have to do this several times to find links). You then attach labels (in the form of codes) to these text fragments. Then you include them in a table. Next, you start coding axially. This means you compare the text fragments and labels with each other and cluster labels that present similarities. In this phase, you need to name the main clusters that are relevant to your research. In the final step, selective coding, you link your main clusters to the theory and you interpret what this data and these links mean. Coding is often a time-consuming job, but here too you can use software that simplifies the process, for example Atlas.ti.

Looking for help with your qualitative research?

Our supervisors are happy to help you set up your research and determine which research methods you should use to get the right results and to answer your main and secondary research questions. We can also help you with the processing and analysis of your interviews. Last but not least, we can advise you on how best to transcribe and code your recordings.

Need help with your research methodology? Book an appointment for a free consultation.