What's the difference between field and desk research?

Its very clear, field research is based on data collected from the area targeted by the research, for instance, for field research on harmful nutritional social practices and behavior you have to go to specific community and collect data with different tools; interviews and FGDs from men, women and children a long with other field sources of info e.g. health authority...etc. and upon that data you build your findings.

For desk research you may only need to review the Literature, triangulate your data cited from your Literature and conclude your research with findings based on that.   

Field Research

Although market research is so important, very few people carry it out and it is something that may never be done, unless the business gets into trouble.

Very often businesses promote to the wrong people, in the wrong place, at the wrong time and end up wasting a lot of money for little return.

Market research should be an ongoing thing - remember to get feedback from your customers, on a continual basis: always ask where they heard about you. What they thought about the product, or service? What could be done to improve it? etc.

Desk Research

Desk Research is the analysis of information that already exists, in one form or another. Useful sources of information can be found in a variety of places:

These are just a few of the sources of information you might want to look at - The underlined items have been set up as a link to an Internet Web Site. If you click on any of them you will be taken there. To return to this page simply close the new page that has opened and you will be back here

Field research dealing with the reality events and information that gathering from the real world, on the other side the desk research have a limitation of confidence rate for the reality, but to prepare a new models and theories, research depends on reality and how to analyse data with maximum confidence rates, to comply with customers/firms/markets, etc...