A study basically entails the following process:
First, comprehensively analysing the literature review, identifying relationships, developing a conceptual model, and proposing hypotheses;
Second, empirically testing those hypotheses to test the proposed relationships.
What basically such types of studies called as? Exploratory or descriptive study or a combination of both.
Please elucidate.
Hi Shubhangi Bharadwaj , thank you for this interesting reflection.
I will bring a theoretical contribution to your question.
First of all, I think that the types of studies you are referring to mostly concern a quantitative approach (even though there is a broad consensus that qualitative approaches follow this recursive logic too, and that therefore every methodology is basically dialogical and recursive in its attempts to reach tentative answers and/or explanations).
Second of all, the terms "exploratory" and "descriptive" can obviously be considered synonym in some epistemological traditions or be considered to carry, in the light of some epistemological reasoning, significant nuances of difference.
Just think like that (no matter your approach or your methodology or your epistemological stances): exploratory explicitly refers to the aims of the study. Descriptive more strictly refers to the way of inquiries, the way of producing knowledge, and to the epistemological and ontological status of the results of the study, if you want.
There is now knowledge that is exploratory, but of course knowledge can be descriptive.
Moreover, assuming an exploratory standpoint could mean gaining a general glance at a specific phenomenon. Assuming a descriptive standpoint, usually, means that you have gained a specific view of some aspects of a phenomenon.
In other terms. When you explore, you are obviously always producing or reaching some sort of description (that you will try to deepen in a second moment). When you are describing, or you have described, you do not have necessarily conduct an exploration.
I would say neither-nor. What you describe looks to me pretty much as the hypothetico-deductive method or rather the hypothetico-inferential method.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/theories-of-scientific-method/hypotheticodeductive-method/A23939B9520B5DF79FF0E96738EEA906
There are two things to ask first:
If you have a model already designed and you want to find functions/characteristics of some group/object in the literature to map to the model then your study is descriptive. In other words, if you have a defined question/structure to collect data from the literature and describe according to the structure then it is descriptive. For instance, if you want to describe the traits of specific groups according to a pre-planned structure.
Else if your model is not yet conceptualized rather when you will be exploring the literature and find something to convert to a thought or idea then your study is explorative. It means that you have no pre-planned analysis and design structure or model rather you are starting as unplanned. During this exploration you may reach to a new thought and discovered new ideas. In this way, you are clarifying the research further and making a road to descriptive analysis.
Thank you Mr Muhammad Afzal for your answer. Do you have a reference for the same?
Thank you, Ciro De Vincenzo and Albert Ziegler for your useful answers.
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