OeNB Financial Literacy Evaluation Series: Qualitative research evaluation – how to get from first ideas to a final paper

Author: Katharina Felbermayr
Year: 2024

How can qualitative evaluations be carried out? Which are the methodological steps that need to be considered? Which qualitative methods can researchers use to collect and evaluate data? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each method? In which contexts is qualitative evaluation actually appropriate?
These are the questions this report is meant to provide answers to. It gives an overview of the main steps in the different phases of qualitative evaluations. These include planning, implementation, analysis and communication. In section 1, I introduced the characteristics of qualitative research. An important step in the planning phase is selecting adequate methods for collecting and analyzing data. Advantages and disadvantages of common qualitative surveying methods – interviews, focus groups, observations and desk reviews of documents – are mentioned in section 2. I discussed the development of appropriate survey instruments for each method in more detail in section 3. Next, section 4 dealt with a topic that is often strongly underrepresented in the literature, although it is essential for implementing evaluations or studies successfully: sampling and access to the research field. In section 5, I discussed how to apply the different methods, while section 6 focused on the analysis of qualitative data.

The full report is available as PDF and HTML.