Badania jakosciowe w naukach ekonomicznych – przydatnosc i wyzwania. Przyklad badania wspolpracy malych i srednich przedsiebiorstw w regionie turystycznym (Qualitative research in economic sciences – usefulness and challenges. The case of the research of small and medium sized enterprises cooperation in a tourist region)

The aim of the article is to present usefulness, challenges and recommendations for conducting qualitative research by economic sciences representatives. To achieve this aim the empirical process of one of the scientific projects executed by the author was presented. The aim of the project was to analyze determinants of cooperation among service providers (including small and medium size enterprises) in tourist regions. In the first part, streams represented by economists and premises of conducting qualitative researchwere presented. In another part, the author’s research on cooperation of entities localized in five Beskids municipalities creating one tourist region was presented.The third part is devoted to theoretical and practical challenges in the process of projecting and conducting research of enterprises in a tourist region. The fourth part concerns practical recommendations that can be useful in this type of empirical research. Achieving the empirical aim is to justify the need of using qualitative research.