Quantitative Research is a type of research that deals with the quantities of things and involves measuring an amount of data. This type of research involves both primary and secondary research techniques, with results including ratings, circulation and viewing figures. It is usually undertook when a large number of answers are needed and is easier than qualitative research. A researcher will typically ask specific, narrow questions hat require small answers that can be summed up and generalized. This may be in the form of tick boxes or giving short, definitive answers. The results of quantitative research will be useful for understanding relationships among variables found, while also helping to identify common trends. Due to the nature of the research type, the results and data will be easy to analyze. If the type of research is asking people their opinions it must be in a structured way, so that it can produce hard facts and statistics to guide you. To ensure that the results are reliable it is essential to survey people in large numbers, to ensure they are a good, quality representative sample of a target market. The research results can be presented in numerous ways such as tables, graphs and pie charts.
It will often be used to display statistics, which it will do through different methods. These can include short surveys involving closed questions, tally charts and other numerical counting methods. An example of a closed question is below. It is from a Sky Sports News poll asking about the cricket: Will England avoid a series whitewash in New Zealand?
Companies may also conduct quantitative research to see how many people watch their Television Channel or read their newspaper. The former are known as 'ratings' while the latter are known as 'figures'. The NRS (National Readership Survey) covers over 250 of Britain's major newspapers and magazines, showing the size and nature of the audiences they receive. This would help a company looking to start a newspaper/magazine, as they could look to see what is already on the market and how successful they are and whether there is a good reason to launch it. RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) covers the world of radio, providing listening figures for all major radio stations in the UK. BARB (Broadcasters Audience Research Board) analyzes television viewing figures for over 275 TV channels. It shows the top 10 and also provides summaries for certain topics. For each of the three research companies, much of the data is free but to access certain results, one must subscribe to the website. Below are the results from RAJAR's quarterly listening figures, for the period ending March 2014.
An advantage of quantitative research is that it is much easier to conduct than qualitative research and is subsequently cheaper and less time-consuming. It is also easier to analyze, present and explain due to the data usually being numbers-based or with closed, simple answers. Whenever the data is gathered it can easily be quantified and so can represent a larger population. Disadvantages are prevalent however, as though it isn't as time consuming as qualitative research, it can still take a lot of time to calculate the figures, which usually need to be added up. The type of research also doesn't provide researchers with some essential details, though this can depend on what is wanted. As surveys are short and quick, it is not necessarily going to represent a large population as people may be bias, such as living in a place where they think differently about certain topics such as immigration, politics, sports etc.