Qualitative research examples help answer one of the most common questions students and professionals ask when they first encounter the methodology: what does this actually look like in practice? The examples below span academic and business research across six domains, each including the research question, method used, what the study found, and what made it qualitative rather than quantitative.
For a broader overview of what qualitative research is and when to use it, see what is qualitative research. For an overview of the different methodological approaches, see qualitative research methods.
Academic qualitative research examples
1. Sociology: Goffman's dramaturgical study of social interaction
Setting: Social institutions, everyday life Method: Ethnographic observation and theoretical synthesis Research question: How do people manage their self-presentation in social situations?
Erving Goffman's 1959 work The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life developed dramaturgical analysis: the idea that social interaction resembles theatre, with "front stage" performances (how we present ourselves to others) and "backstage" behaviour (what we do when the audience is absent). Goffman drew on observation of everyday settings, from hotels to medical consultations, to develop his framework.
The study was qualitative because it sought to understand meaning, not measure frequency. Goffman was not counting how many times people adjusted their behaviour in front of others. He was building a conceptual framework that explained the pattern. The empirical basis was rich, detailed observation interpreted through a sociological lens.
This work remains foundational for qualitative researchers studying professional identity, organisational culture, and digital self-presentation.
2. Health: Glaser and Strauss's awareness context study
Setting: Hospital wards for terminally ill patients (San Francisco, 1960s) Method: Grounded theory Research question: How do patients, families, and nurses manage the knowledge that a patient is dying?
Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss spent months observing interactions on hospital wards, conducting unstructured interviews with nurses and patients, and documenting what happened when a patient's prognosis was poor. Their 1965 book Awareness of Dying identified four "awareness contexts": closed (patient unaware), suspected (patient suspects), mutual pretence (everyone knows but pretends otherwise), and open (explicit acknowledgement).
This study is a landmark example of grounded theory methodology. Glaser and Strauss did not begin with a hypothesis; they developed their framework inductively from the data. The result was a conceptual model that changed how hospitals approached end-of-life communication.
The study was qualitative because the phenomenon (the social management of dying) could not be measured on a scale. It required interpretation of social interaction in context.
3. Education: Kezar and Eckel's phenomenological study of change leadership
Setting: Six US universities undergoing significant organisational change Method: Multi-site case study with semi-structured interviews Research question: How do leaders create systemic change in higher education institutions?
Adrianna Kezar and Peter Eckel (2002) interviewed 145 administrators and faculty members across six universities to understand how transformational change actually happened, as experienced by the people involved. They identified five "core strategies" that distinguished successful change from stalled efforts: senior administrative support, collaborative leadership, strong design, staff development, and visible action.
This is an example of qualitative case study methodology as described by Robert Yin. The researchers were not testing a pre-existing theory; they were building understanding from the ground up through systematic analysis of interview data across multiple sites.
4. Psychology: interpretive phenomenological analysis of chronic illness
Setting: Community and clinical settings Method: Interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) Research question: What is it like to live with a long-term health condition?
IPA has been widely used to study the lived experience of chronic illness. A representative example: a study of 8 adults with Type 2 diabetes (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009) used semi-structured interviews to explore how participants made sense of their diagnosis and managed daily life with the condition. Themes included "the body as a stranger" (a disrupted relationship with one's physical self) and "managing the public face" (controlling what others knew about the illness).
IPA uses very small, purposive samples (typically 4-12 participants) because the aim is depth of analysis per participant rather than coverage of a population. For more on this methodology, see the IPA guide.
5. Management: Pettigrew's longitudinal case study of ICI
Setting: Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), UK Method: Longitudinal case study with documents, interviews, and observation Research question: How does strategic change happen in a large organisation over time?
Andrew Pettigrew's 1985 study of ICI followed the company over more than a decade, combining archival documents, interviews with executives and managers, and direct observation. His analysis produced a contextual model of strategic change that emphasised the interaction between content (what changed), process (how it changed), and context (the organisational and environmental conditions).
This study is often cited as a model of qualitative rigour in management research. Pettigrew's approach to triangulating across data sources and tracking change longitudinally set the template for processual research in strategy and organisation studies.
6. Applied linguistics: Tannen's study of conversational style
Setting: Naturally occurring conversations across professional and social settings Method: Discourse analysis Research question: How do different conversational styles create (mis)understanding?
Deborah Tannen's research on "rapport talk" and "report talk" drew on recordings and transcripts of real conversations to show how different conversational conventions (turn-taking, interruption, indirectness, silence) are interpreted differently by different speakers. This work became the basis for her influential books on gender and communication.
Discourse analysis is qualitative research on language itself: not counting words, but interpreting how language is used to construct meaning, negotiate relationships, and exercise power.
Business qualitative research examples
7. Product design: IDEO's shopping cart ethnography
Setting: US supermarkets and retail environments Method: Ethnographic observation and user interviews Research question: What actually goes wrong for shoppers, and how could a shopping cart be redesigned?
IDEO's 1999 redesign of the supermarket shopping cart, documented in an ABC Nightline segment, became a classic case study in design thinking. The team spent time observing shoppers in supermarkets, interviewing staff and customers, and shadowing people as they shopped. They discovered that most existing carts were used and abused in ways the design had never anticipated: small children left unsupervised in seats, baskets left at the end of aisles while shoppers browsed, carts abandoned in car parks.
The resulting design addressed these observed behaviours: modular baskets that could be detached, a child seat that could be swapped out, and a design that was harder to steal. None of this came from a survey. It came from watching what people actually did.
8. Market research: Christensen's milkshake study
Setting: US fast food restaurants Method: Jobs-to-be-done interviews and contextual observation Research question: Why do people buy milkshakes in the morning?
Clayton Christensen's jobs-to-be-done methodology begins with qualitative research. In a well-known study of a fast food chain's milkshake programme, researchers first tried standard survey methods: asking customers what would make the milkshake better. The answers were conventional (more chocolate, more fruit, lower price).
A researcher then spent 18 hours in a restaurant observing who bought milkshakes and when. He found that about half of all milkshakes were sold before 9am, mostly to commuters. Follow-up interviews revealed that commuters were not thinking about milkshakes; they were hiring something to do during a long, boring commute. The milkshake was thick (lasted a long time), filling (reduced hunger), and easy to eat while driving.
This insight could not have come from a quantitative survey. It required observation and conversation with real people about their actual circumstances. For more on this method, see the JTBD interviews guide.
9. HR and people research: exit interview programmes
Setting: Corporate organisations across sectors Method: Semi-structured interviews coded thematically Research question: Why are people leaving, and what patterns explain attrition?
Exit interview programmes are one of the most common forms of applied qualitative research in organisations. A well-run programme conducts structured interviews with departing employees, codes responses into departure reasons (management quality, growth opportunities, compensation, culture, role fit), and tracks these themes over time and by segment.
The value over a standard exit survey is depth: an interview captures the specific circumstances, the last straw, and the comparison to competitors that a Likert scale cannot. For more on how to run and analyse these, see exit interview analysis.
10. Competitive intelligence: expert network interview analysis
Setting: Strategy consulting and PE/VC due diligence Method: Semi-structured interviews with industry experts, thematically coded Research question: What do people who know this market really think about the opportunity?
Expert network interviews (via GLG, AlphaSights, Guidepoint) are standard in commercial due diligence. A research team conducts 20-40 interviews with industry experts, former executives, and customers, then synthesises findings into a market view.
This is qualitative research applied commercially. The coding is typically deductive (structured around pre-defined due diligence questions), but the value comes from the qualitative richness: the expert who says "I watched three competitors try that and fail, and here's exactly why" is providing insight that no database contains. For more on this, see how to run primary research in a consulting project.
11. Customer research: voice of customer programmes
Setting: B2B and B2C organisations Method: Interviews, NPS verbatim analysis, customer advisory boards Research question: What do customers actually experience with our product, and why?
Voice of customer (VoC) programmes use multiple qualitative data sources: interviews, NPS open-text feedback, customer advisory boards, support ticket analysis. The aim is to understand customer experience from the customer's perspective, not from internal metrics.
A well-run VoC programme does not just report themes; it tracks them over time, cross-tabulates by customer segment, and connects qualitative findings to quantitative outcomes (renewal rate, expansion revenue, NPS score). For more on designing and running a VoC programme, see voice of customer research guide.
12. Policy research: EU Digital Omnibus consultation analysis
Setting: European Union regulatory consultation process Method: Systematic document analysis and thematic coding Research question: What did respondents to the EU Digital Omnibus consultation actually say, and what patterns emerge across respondent types?
Skimle's own use case: a structured analysis of several hundred submissions to the EU Digital Omnibus call for evidence, coded thematically by the regulatory proposals being addressed and cross-tabulated by respondent type (industry associations, civil society, individual companies, academic and research institutions). The analysis surfaced consistent patterns around SME proportionality, the "Brussels effect" concern, and the tension between regulatory harmonisation and national implementation.
For public sector and policy teams, this kind of structured analysis of consultation responses is one of the most high-value applications of qualitative methods. You can read the full case study at Skimle in action: EU Digital Omnibus consultation.
What these examples have in common
Looking across all 12 examples, several patterns stand out:
The research question was not answerable with numbers. In each case, the researchers wanted to understand a phenomenon, process, or experience in depth. Counting or measuring would not have captured what they needed.
The data was text, observation, or spoken language. Transcripts, field notes, documents, and recordings are the raw material of qualitative research. Analysis transforms that raw material into structured themes and patterns.
The findings were specific, not generic. The milkshake study did not conclude "customers have varied needs." It found that morning commuters were hiring milkshakes to do a specific job that most breakfast foods did not do. Specificity is the mark of good qualitative research.
Context mattered. Every example above was shaped by where it happened, who was involved, and when. Qualitative research takes context seriously rather than abstracting it away.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common type of qualitative research in academic settings?
Thematic analysis is the most widely used qualitative method in academic research across disciplines, particularly in social science, psychology, health, and education. Grounded theory and IPA are common in fields where the goal is to build new theory or understand lived experience in depth.
What qualitative research methods are used in business settings?
The most common business applications are semi-structured interviews coded thematically, focus groups for consumer and brand research, ethnographic observation for product and service design, and document analysis for competitive intelligence and due diligence. These are rarely labelled with the methodological names used in academic research; in business, the label is often "customer research," "primary research," or "qualitative research" without further specification.
Can qualitative research be used as evidence in business decisions?
Yes, and it is most effective when presented alongside quantitative evidence. Qualitative findings explain the "why" that metrics cannot, and direct quotes carry persuasive weight with senior stakeholders in ways that charts do not. The challenge is presenting qualitative evidence in a form that sceptical audiences will trust: see presenting qualitative research findings to executives for practical guidance.
How many participants do you need for qualitative research?
Sample sizes in qualitative research are much smaller than in quantitative research and are determined by the principle of theoretical saturation rather than statistical power. For academic studies, 15-25 semi-structured interviews is a common range. For business research, it depends on the purpose: 8-12 in-depth customer discovery interviews may be sufficient to identify the key themes; 40+ expert interviews are typical for commercial due diligence. See qualitative research sample size for more detailed guidance.
Ready to analyse your own qualitative data with the same rigour as the best academic and business studies? Try Skimle for free and see how AI-assisted systematic analysis processes interviews, field notes, and documents into structured themes with full traceability.
Related reading: What is qualitative research? Methods, types and when to use it | Qualitative research methods: 5 main approaches and when to use each | Thematic analysis: complete guide to methods, steps and applications
About the authors
Henri Schildt is a Professor of Strategy at Aalto University School of Business and co-founder of Skimle. He has published over a dozen peer-reviewed articles using qualitative methods, including work in Academy of Management Journal, Organisation Science, and Strategic Management Journal. His research focuses on organisational strategy, innovation, and qualitative methodology. Google Scholar profile
Olli Salo is a former Partner at McKinsey & Company where he spent 18 years helping clients understand the markets and themselves, develop winning strategies and improve their operating models. He has done over 1000 client interviews and published over 10 articles on McKinsey.com and beyond. LinkedIn profile
