WEEK 4 EOC
In Chapter 6 of our book Secondary
data is defined as, "Data that have been previously collected for some
purpose other than the one at hand." (Zikmund 122) Some of the advantages
are that gathered and recorded data by someone else gives a head start on historical
information that has already been assembled. It may not require any additional
access to research respondents or subjects. Secondary data has been compared to
quantitative and qualitative. Another advantage of secondary data is its availability;
it is faster and less expensive than acquiring primary data. Researchers may
use electronic retrieval to access data stored digitally. Instead of doing the
field work they can get demographic information and estimates.
Some of the disadvantages of using
secondary data are that they may not be designed specifically to meet the
researchers' needs. Researchers need to decide what is the most important and
pertinent data to their particular project. When they evaluate secondary data
the researchers should look for data that applies to the population of
interest, time period, correct units of measure, and covers the topic of
interest in detail. Researchers need to make sure that secondary information is
relevant, useful, and reliable.
There are three general categories of
research objectives: fact-finding, model building, and database marketing.
(Zikmund 126) “The most common reasons why secondary data do not adequately
satisfy research needs are (1) outdated information, (2) variation in
definition of terms, (3) different units of measurement, and (4) lack of
information to verify the data's accuracy.” (Zikmund 124) Researchers need to verify
data whenever possible.
Some
internal and proprietary sources of secondary data come from managers often get data from and accounting records. “Data
mining is the use of powerful computers to dig through volumes of data to
discover patterns about an organization's customers and products.” (Zikmund
141)
In Chapter 7 the definition of
surveys is, “A method of collecting primary data based on communication
(questions and answers) with a representative sample of respondents.” (Zikmund
146) The type of information that may be gathered in a survey is consumer
knowledge and awareness of products, brands, or issues. Some survey research is
considered descriptive research.
There are two major sources of error
in survey research, “random sampling error (A statistical fluctuation that
occurs because of chance variation in the elements selected for a sample) and
systematic error (Error resulting from some imperfect aspect of the research
design that causes respondent error or from a mistake in the execution of the
research.” (Zikmund 149)
Cited Works:
Zikmund, William G., Barry Babin. Essentials of Marketing Research, 4e, 4th Edition. Cengage Learning, 04/2009. VitalBook file.
