During my four Residencies in-person in Phoenix, I have guided many learners' research methods. I am often asked if a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods dissertation is the "best." The answer is: it depends. Of course, as a faculty member with expertise in quantitative research, I am biased toward a quantitative study whenever possible, as being able to prove something with numbers is a skill that is very much needed today in industry. Usually, learners will focus on correlative relationships (potential cause and effect), t-tests that compare means between one or more groups, and descriptive statistics. There are many more methods in quant research, but these are the "greatest hits." A recent annual Wall Street Journal study once again ranked "mathematician" and "actuary" as the two best jobs in their ranking of 250 careers  - based on many attributes - including pay, safety of the job, stress level, satisfaction, and many other attributes. For sure, quant skills are needed today in industry, and therefore being numbers-literate, and demonstrating it through writing a quant dissertation, can be of great value. However, this being said, your research journey may not bring you to a quant-based study. Also, not everyone likes numbers - numbers are sometimes not our friends. Moreover, some studies are best completed through a qualitative procedure based on the topic. Finally, gathering the data is sometimes not practical, making the sample size too small, and the results inconclusive. This all being said, if you are interested in undertaking the quant journey, please check back here for more blogs about quantitative research!

Daniel J. Smith, MA, MBA, PhD

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