Mixed Method Research Design

Creswell (2014) defined mixed method research design as the one which involve both qualitative and quantitative study. Three most used mixed method models are:

1. Convergent parallel mixed method – both qualitative and quantitative research studies are performed in parallel. At the end, researcher will integrate the information from both studies and explain the findings.

2. Explanatory sequential mixed method – research starts with quantitative study and then followed by qualitative study.

3. Exploratory sequential mixed method – research starts with qualitative study and then followd by quantitative study

One possible idea of mixed method design using exploratory sequential approach is related to improving the customer’s video playing satisfaction on their smartphone. The research will be explanatory sequential as it will start with quantitative study followed by qualitative. In the quantitative phase of the research, surveys will be performed across variety of smartphone users using different video applications to watch variety of genres like, sports, news movies etc. The quantitative data will help in identifying the weights and attributes which influence the video experience. Some of the attributes are like, time-to-first-picture, video start up time, buffering-during-play, failure-to-load, failure-to-finish, video resolution etc. Based on the survey results, weights and significant attributes contributing the most in best video experience are determined using statistical techniques. Once the quantitative data is analyzed, qualitative research is further performed to explain why certain attributes need to be emphasized to improve customer experience versus others. For instance, the video resolution is often thought to be good when high but screen size and quality of mobile phone can make it difficult for the end-user to perceive the actual quality difference, say 480p versus 720p or 1080p or even 4K. Thus, the research might show that dimensioning cellular network to deliver video quality above 480p or 720p might be unnecessary as there will be diminishing returns to investments since majority of customers can not perceive the difference between 480p and 1080p.

Reference

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.