Qualitative versus quantitative

The literature on methodology distinguishes between qualitative and quantitative research methods. The term ‘qualitative’ does not refer to the quality of methods. Qualitative methods are those that are oriented towards the discovery of qualities of things – that is, the properties of objects, phenomena, situations, people, meanings and events. In contrast, quantitative methods are oriented towards the number or amount of these qualities. This chapter discusses a number of qualitative research methods that can be used in FPS projects. For quantitative research methods, we refer the reader to textbooks on social science methodology, such as those by Cooper and Schindler (2010) and Hair et al. (2005).

Imagine a marketing manager who would like to know the opinions of potential customers about a television commercial. He/she could ask some respondents to talk freely about their feelings with regard to the commercial, their associations, what they like about it and what they do 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.