Applied Research

Definition

Research that focuses on the use of knowledge rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. A motivation behind applied research is to engage with people, organizations or interests beyond the academic discipline and for knowledge to be useful outside the context in which it was generated.

Distinctive Features

This engagement with the ‘outside world’ (for example, government departments, commercial organizations, pressure groups) gives applied research some distinctive characteristics. Bickman and Rog (1998), for example, argue that basic and applied research differ in purposes, context and methods. Although the differences are presented in dichotomous terms, the authors suggest that in reality they should be seen as continua. The differences of purpose can be described in terms of the goals of knowledge production. For the basic researcher the production of knowledge is an end in itself whereas for the applied researcher knowledge is used to further other ends or goals. For example, a basic researcher might be interested in understanding how [Page 9]customers make purchasing decisions with no other concern than the process of decision making itself. An applied researcher might be interested in the same kind of behaviour but be primarily concerned with how the findings of the research could be used, say, to increase the sale of certain commodities.

This points to an important difference in the context of applied and basic research. Applied research is often initiated by someone other than the researcher (it could be a government department, a pressure group or a commercial organization). Basic research, in contrast, is more often than not conducted by the person(s) who formulated the topic or research question in the first place. Where research is ‘other initiated’, the researcher may have less control over various aspects of the research process (for example, the design of the study, its scope and timeframe and, perhaps, whether the results will be made publicly available). Where research is ‘self-initiated’ there is greater opportunity to ‘set one's own agenda’ and be less constrained about how the research is managed and conducted. Even so, the standard conditions attaching to externally funded projects mean that basic researchers are also subject to a number of ‘other-initiated’ requirements (for example, compliance with ethical guidelines).

There are no specific research methods associated with either basic or applied research, but Bickman and Rog (1998) suggest that applied researchers are more likely to pay greater attention to issues of external validity. This does not imply a lack of attention to internal validity on the part of applied researchers; it is simply a matter of usefulness. Applied researchers will want to show that their results can be used to address a problem or issue in the ‘real world’ .

Evaluation

Different social science disciplines have engaged in applied research with different levels of enthusiasm. Some, like economics, have established a close relationship between the development of theory, techniques of measurement and statistical analysis in order to explain the workings of the economy (and other economic phenomena) which frequently inform government decision makers. Outside government, university-based economists, have a long-standing reputation for their forecasts on economic growth (Begg and Henry, 1998).

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