Business Research/Report Writing

Module 1
Topic 3 Tools and Techniques
I. Learning Activities

3.1 INTRODUCTION to USING EXCEL DATA ANALYSIS

TOOLS

Questionnaire Analysis Begins with Good Research Questions

It’s always essential to frame a set of research questions. What is it

that you are trying to find out? Let’s consider the following example of a
set of research questions that are focused on customer satisfaction.

The following variables of interest were determined to be of interest:

✓ INDIVIDUAL is the observation number of the questionnaire. One
questionnaire was completed for each family visiting the park
✓ TIME is a quantitative data type, measured in minutes. It is the time
that an individual spends engaged in an activity in the park
✓ MODE is a nominal data type consisting of four means of
transportation to get to the park:
o Walk (1)
o By car (2)
o Cycling (3)
o By bus (4)
✓ ACTIVITY is a nominal data type consist of 6 choices of activity in
the park (more than one option could be selected):
o Sporting activity (football, basketball) (1)
o Family picnic (2)

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o Leisure (reading) (3)

o Walking (including with the dog) (4)
o Meditation (5)
o Other (6)
✓ SATISFACTION measures an individual’s satisfaction concerning
the park service it receives and is an ordinal scale with 5 values:
o -2 = Very dissatisfied
o -1 = Dissatisfied
o 0 = Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
o 1 = Satisfied
o 2 = Very Satisfied
✓ PLAYGROUND is a nominal scale (Yes or No) about the existence
of a playground for children
With these research questions and variables in mind, the city mangers
developed a questionnaire which they distributed to park users. This
following coding table was developed to enable to city managers to code
each of the questionnaire responses for analysis:

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Although this is a very limited data set it can be used to illustrate how
to use Excel to analyze data and help to answer to research questions
posed above.

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS DATA ANALYSIS USING EXCEL

Microsoft Excel (2007 or earlier or later) includes a selection of

descriptive data analysis tools. To access the data analysis menu in Excel,
you will need to do the following:
1. First be sure that you have installed the Add-in

2. Click on the Add-ins option and a screen with various add-ins will
appear. If the Analysis TookPak is inactive, highlight it and at the
bottom of the page click “Go” to enable the Analysis Toolpak

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3. With the Data Analysis ToolPak installed, you are now ready to
work with the questionnaire data that was described earlier. By
clicking on the Data tab, you will see a Data Analysis tab at the end
of the row options. Clicking this option will open the data analysis
dialog box and that in turn displays the Descriptive Statistics option.

4. Clicking OK with the Descriptive Statistics option highlighted

produces another dialog box which is an input form

5. First, you must complete the input range. To do this, select range
of your data that you want to be analyzed by highlighting it. In this
example, that means highlighting rows 3 through 14 inclusive and
columns A through K (again, inclusive). Include the label in the
first row and check that check box.

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6. Check also the Summary statistics check box and then click OK
button.
7. After some re-formatting, the resulting summary data analysis table
will look like this:

3.2 CROSS – TABULATION (Cross-Tabs)

It’s important to consider the relationship between two variables. In order

to do this, we will need to do what is called a cross tabulation or cross
tab for short.

Cross Tabulation is a frequency table between two or more variables. It

is recommended that only two or three variables at most be considered at
one time since a table with more variables can become difficult to read
and interpret. These tables are often called contingency tables. In Excel,
the label Pivot Table is used.

When you click the icon, the Create Pivot Table dialog box pops open.

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After selecting the data range including the labels at the top of the data
table in Row 2 and clicking OK the Pivot Table function will open. You
will now be able to select the fields and variables that you want to
consider.
For example, you may be thinking that those individuals who spend more
time in the park are doing so because they are more satisfied with their
experience. To create this cross tab, select the fields, check the tick boxes
for Time & Satisfaction as indicated in the image below:

Next, drag the satisfaction label into the box labelled Row Labels and the
Time Label in to the Sum value box.

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This will result in a Pivot Table that looks like this:

The left hand column in this cross-tab table indicates the degree of
satisfaction with the park experience. The -2 data point is missing since
none of the respondents selected this response. The right hand column
indicates the total time in minutes that those selecting a satisfaction rating
is selected.

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II. Assessment

Activity 3.1.

1. I want you to go over the new and updated Microsoft Excel and try
to find the steps given in the descriptive analysis using MS Excel.
Take screenshots/screen record and send this activity thru Google
classroom.
2. ABC Stationary that supplies a range of products including pens,
pencils, blinders, and office furniture to local distributors has a
regional sales force that operates throughout the country. The
following table provides an overview of the sales that have been
completed by ABC’s sales representatives during 2010. Now,
review the chart and then answer the questions that follow:

• As the owner of ABC, what kinds of questions do you think should

be asked concerning the sales activity represented in the data set
provided by the sales team? Why do you think those questions are
important?
• What is the breakdown of sales by region?
• Are there any important differences between regions in terms of
product that are sold?
• Which sales representative seems to be the most successful? Which
one is the least successful?
• Illustrate the most important relationships in this data set using the
data analysis tools you have learned about in this unit.

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III. References

• Carbol, Barry, Business Research, Commonwealth of Learning:

Edition 1, December 2012
• https://www.workplacetesting.com/definition/1333/scattergram

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