Question

Can you tell me what type of study is this (exploratory, descriptive or explanatory) and why? justify the answer! The chief financial officer of a multinational corporation wants to know the profits made during past 5 years by each of the subsidiaries in England ,Germany, France and Spain.

Answer 1

Exploratory research is defined as research used to investigate a problem that is not clearly defined.

Descriptive Research: It is used to describe the idea or phenomena. Exploratory research often forms the basis for descriptive research and the knowledge acquires through exploratory research is used to select respondents, setting priority issues, framing and asking questions as well as setting the time and place for the respondents like when and where to ask questions.

Explanatory Research Explanatory research questions seek to answer or otherwise pursue questions about 'gaps' or holes in our knowledge and understanding.

I Believe it is a descriptive study.

Because the CFO wants to study the profits made in the last 5 years. It is a kind of longitudinal study and a longitudinal study is a method used in a descriptive study.

Here we can say that the CFO wants to study the impact on profit made by the different subsidiaries. That may be dependent on the location, time, etc.

That means we are taking two variables into consideration and studying the impact of one on the other. Say for example the impact of the location of subsidiaries on profit.

We are trying the study the profit, what might have impacted it and various possibilities.