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Theoretical research vs. Applied research
- When considering an article's purpose, consider its aim.
- You will need to make this determination when you begin thinking about a Capstone Project
- Do you want results in order to determine what best works in a given situation.(Applied Research)
- or, do you want to increase understanding of a general condition. (Theoretical Research)
- The following are two excerpts concerning applied and theoretical research from James R. Van
Scotter and Patrick E. Culligan's article "The Value of Theoretical Research and Applied Research
for the Hospitality Industry" :- "Applied research is results oriented. It involves determining what
works and how to apply that information to achieve desired outcomes.
Applied research is performed with the intention of helping managers
solve the organization's problems" (16).
- "Theoretical research. Although theoretical research often provides
information that is useful in solving problems, its goals are more general
than those of applied research. Theoretical research aims to increase
understanding of a class of phenomena and the relationships among
key components of phenomena.... In contrast to applied research,
theoretical research is designed to be independent of any given
situation. The intent is that, over time, theoretical research will help
managers in many organizations to solve similar problems by showing
them how various factors are related" (16).
- "Applied research is results oriented. It involves determining what
- Applied research has only a specific use, and after time may be worthless when new research find s a better answer or solution.
- Theoretical research usually has a longer shelf life, but does not answer practical questions.
Meta-research
- Meta-analysis articles are NOT useful for the purposes of THIS assignment, but you should know WHAT they are.
- After a time period (of months or years), a group of articles that all discuss the same topic will be published.
- Even though these articles may/might discuss other articles that concern the same topic, these single article usually do not correlate ALL the articles on a specific topic.
- Meta-analysis articles (aka, meta research articles) seek to interconnect a group of articles to determine new information or ideas from connecting them altogether.
- Said another way (if you read through the Types of Literature Reviews document), meta-analysis articles are like an Integrative Literature review, which "Reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated."