Business

Research Methods

Secondary Data
Research in a Digital Age
 Importance of data
• In research , data is needed in
– Research design
– Sampling design
– Data gathering and /or field work techniques
– Data processing and analysis
 Types of data
• Secondary data: is the data that have been
already collected and recorded by someone
else and readily available from other
sources.
• Primary data : are gathered by researcher
and usually done by survey research
 Secondary Data
Data gathered and recorded by someone else
in the past.
Is often:
• Historical
• Already assembled
• Needs no access to subjects
• May be dated to a specific period
• Eg: census
 Purpose of Secondary Data
• Extracting the relevant information from other
sources, previous studies
• Fact findings: Descriptive information to support
research
• Model Building: specifying relationship between
two or more variables
• Data mining : Exploring data through computer .
• IT is primarily used : Identifying the relevant
sources To avoid plagiarism
Advantages and disadvantages of
Secondary Data
• Advantages
– Faster • Less Expensive • Less activities (Field
trip, Survey etc.)

• Disadvantages •:
– Not easily available • Not adequate • May not
meet the needs of researcher • Outdated
information • Variation in definition •
Inaccurate or bias
 Evaluating secondary data
• Applicability to project objectives
– Does the data relate to the research questions?
– Is the data from the relevant time period?
– Does it relate to the appropriate populations?
– Does it cover all the variables identified?
– Is the data measurable and comparable?
• Accuracy of data
– Is the original source of data available?
– Bias and cost factors
– Is the data verifiable?
 Objectives for Secondary Data
Studies
• Fact Finding
• Model Building
• Data Based Marketing
 Examples for Objectives
for Secondary Data Studies
Fact Finding - Identifying consumption patterns
- Tracking trends

Model building - Estimating market potential

Data Base Marketing - Development of Prospect Lists

Information Producer
(Central Government)

Library
(Storage of
government
documents
and books)

Company User
Traditional Distribution
Direct Channel

Information Producer
(Federal Government)

Company User
Direct, Computerized Distribution Using Intermediary

Information producer’s
(NGOs, Research Consultants)
computerized database

Company user
 Modern Distribution of Secondary Data

Information producer A Information producer B Information producer C

Vendor/external
distributor
(Computerized database
integrating all three data
sources for any
geographic area)

Information producer A
(Federal government-
census data)
 Internal Data
Internal and proprietary data is more descriptive

• Accounting information
• Sales information
• Backorders
• Customer complaints
– EG: Sales by territory
Sales by customer type
Prices and discounts
Average size of order by customer, customer
type, geographical area
Average sales by sales person and
Sales by pack size and pack type, etc.
 External Data
• Created, recorded, or generated by an entity
other than the researcher’s organization
• Government
• Trade associations
• Newspapers and journals
 External Data
• Libraries
• The Internet
• Vendors
• Producers
• Books and periodicals
 External Data- sources
• Government sources
– Population censuses
· Social surveys, family expenditure surveys
· Import/export statistics
· Production statistics
· Agricultural statistics

• Media sources
• Commercial sources
Integrating Secondary Data

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 Data mining
• Starts with: Data collection and database
creation, data management (including data
storage and retrieval, and database
transaction processing),
• And data analysis and understanding
(involving data warehousing and data
mining).
• Data mining refers to extracting or \mining"
know ledge from large amounts of data
 Exhibit 7-9 The Evolution of Data Mining
Evolutionary Step Investigative Question Enabling Technologies Characteristics

Data collection (1960s) “What was my average Computers, tapes, disks Retrospective, static data
total revenue over the last delivery
five years?”
Data access (1980s) “What were unit sales in Relational databases Retrospective, dynamic
California last (RDBMS), structured data delivery at record
December?” query language (SQL), level
ODBC
Data navigation (1990s) “What were unit sales in Online analytic Retrospective, dynamic
California last December? processing (OLAP), data delivery at multiple
Drill down to multidimensional levels
Sacramento.” databases, data
warehouses
Data mining (2000) “What’s likely to happen Advanced algorithms, Prospective, proactive
to Sacramento unit sales multiprocessor information delivery
next month? Why?” computers, massive
databases

7-21
 Global Secondary Data
• Country wise data – international
organisations – UN, WTO. IMF
• Typical limitations
– Unavailable
– Questionable accuracy
– Lack of standardized terminology
Integration of Secondary Data into the Research Process

7-23