Week 5 Assignment

Kanit Dararutana

Dr. Thomas Hennefer

BUS 642 – Business Research Methods & Tools

Ashford University

4 February 2013

Week 5 Assignment

Making Research Decisions

2) Suppose you were preparing two-way tables of percentages for the following pairs of variables. How would you run the percentages?

a) Age and consumption of breakfast cereal.

Here I would use cross tabulation because there are two variables and start by listing age in the left most column. Each row would represent every age concerned, and then the following columns would be the amount or type of cereal consumed depending on what the question desired.

b) Family income and confidence about the family’s future.

Again I would use cross tabulation here, I would list in the left-most columns different income ranges and each row would be realistic of different family incomes. From there, each subsequent column would list a percentage relating whether those in that income bracket felt confident from a scale of 1 to 5.

c) Marital status and sports participation.

Here I would use cross tabulation to list two rows, married and unmarried. Then each column would represent a sport and a percentage of how many people participated in that sport. The last column would be marked as no sports for those that do not play sports at all.

d) Crime rate and unemployment rate.

I would use cross tabulation here and list a number of crime rates or crime rate ranges on the left. Each row would represent the crime rates of that percentage or the range. Then each column would represent a range of unemployment.

From Concept to Practice

7) Use the data in Exhibit 16-5 to construct a stem-and-leaf display.

5|13 15 17 19 21
10|9 11

15|5

20|7

a) Where do you find the main body of the distribution?

In the zero column or over 0 but less than 5

b) How many values reside outside the inner fence(s)?

3 values – 17,19 and 21

Discussion Questions

1) Build the management-research question hierarchy. First, Penton media identified the management dilemma – that ad advertising might not be generating as many leads as in the past. Next, they developed their management question – should they lower advertisement revenues if ads are not generating as much as before? They went on to develop their survey and research questions which included whether or not they made or planned to make purchase inquiries that year, what methods they would prefer to make the inquiries and whether or not they used the internet. Their investigative questions detailed whether or not they had phone, fax, or internet access and their measurement questions included whether the buyer made purchasing decisions based on their methods. This resulted in revealing that buyers were influenced by a greater demand on productivity, the fast pace of business and the cost of production. The management decision in the end concluded that the buyers behavior depended on how immediate their concern was and that the key was giving the buyer the information they wanted quickly.
2) What ethical issues are relevant to this study?
None that I know of – all information is requested not taken, everyone called has an equal chance to participate.
3) Describe the sampling plan. Analyze its strengths and weaknesses.
The sample was drawn from domestic subscribers, initially with a small sample, then a sample of 300 and finally with 4,000 Penton employees. Of them, 676 indicated that they were purchase decision makers of their organization. This sample size is large and has potential to be random, however because the pool is so large in the Penton employee category, much of the data may be skewed to however Penton employees may behave. It may not be relevant to worldwide. In addition, because they surveyed subscribers, they are only finding out information from people who already intend to respond and not from a larger sampling which might include people who do not want to respond to ads.
4) Describe the research design. Analyze its strengths and weaknesses.
The design included a number of survey questions with varying number of choices. Most of the questions required the surveyed person to decide on scales of 1-3 or 1-4. This will allow those taking the survey to find where they fit, but will not determine if certain parameters are a little above the middle or greatly above the middle like question 4a which states has increased or has decreased – we wont know by how much or how impressive it might be.
5) Critique the survey used for the study.
Because the survey allows for check all that apply, some data, when compared in the situations where the variable was a part of the “all that apply” question, may be confusing because information may be counted twice or more times.
6) Prepare the survey for analysis. Set up the code sheet for this study. How will this study be set up to be tabulated by a statistical analysis program like SPSS?
I would detail the data as a cross-tabulation with control and nested variables. On the left-most column I would list the various choices for question 1. Each row would represent that the user was a specifier, reccomender, purchaser or approver for the specific classification. Then in each column after, each question would list all of their sub questions and each of their choices, so the next column would be if they faxed for immediate product/service and their percentage and the column after that faxed for a nonimmediate product/service, followed by did not do in the past year and continue with the remaining questions.
7) Assume you are compiling your research report. How would you present the statistical information within this case to the IndustryWeek decision maker, the manager who must decide whether or not to continue to publish reader service cards?
I would use bar graphs to show the percentages of individuals who report calling specific numbers given by the reader service cards for an immediate need as opposed to those who do not in order to show that the service cards do or do not indeed make a difference.
8) Assume you are compiling your research report. What are the limitations of this study?
The limitations of this study are that only subscribers or employees were chosen as the sample, and we can only predict the choices those who are connected to the company in some way may act. We have no way of finding out those who are not suppliers or employees would act or if they would make different choices.
9) Assume you are the decision maker for IndustryWeek . Given the declining value of the reader response card to subscribers, originally designed as a value-enhancing service to IW readers and advertisers alike, what further research might be suggested by the findings of this study? Or do you have sufficient information to stop the use of reader response cards in IndustryWeek ?
It seems that most buyers prefer the convenience of an answer immediately, which the cards do not show. What would need to be researched is if those who did not have an immediate need and did use the card would choose to instead use the telephone to make their inquiry. If this were researched, we could then make our decision adequately. However, based on the current information I would probably go ahead and stop the use of reader response cards because most already use telephones or digital means of communication, so most of the rest may turn to that.

References Cooper, D., & Schindler, P. (2011). Business research methods. (11 ed.). McGraw-Hill/Irwin.