Week 4

 

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 (Zikmund 126) “The most common reasons why secondary data do not adequately satisfy research needs are (1) outdated information, (2) variation in definition of terms, (3) different units of measurement, and (4) lack of information to verify the data's accuracy.”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.