BUSINESS RESEARCH

METHODS

LECTURE 5
SOURCES OF DATA & DATA COLLECTION
2 – (CONCEPTS AND VARIABLES)

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 ACCESS
Access to respondents is vital and can be
achieved through
 Family

 Previous employers

 Previous work colleagues

 Other students

 Lecturers

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 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ACCESS
Strategies for access
 Starting early
 Developing contacts
 Establishing credibility
 Overcoming fears and highlighting benefits
You are responsible for gaining access – it is not the University or the
supervisor’s responsibility

Many research proposals are weak or impractical because of

insufficient thought as
to how access is to be achieved
Have your respondents agreed to participate in your research?

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 DIFFERENT FORMS OF
PRIMARY DATA GATHERING
 Primary data can be collected via the following
means:
 Interviews
 Face-to-face
 Telephone

 Video link (video conferencing)

 Email conversation (chat)

 Surveys
 Questionnaire
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MERITS OF PRIMARY DATA
 Theamount of discretion the researcher
possesses in the collection of primary
evidence
 The method of data collection

 The time it will take to gather the data

 This guarantees a greater degree of attention

on the collection of the relevant data
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MERITS OF PRIMARY DATA CONT’D

 The researcher is able to focus more on what is

needed for the study by finding more specific
information about the issues at stake, as against
secondary data that are likely to contain pieces
of information the researcher might not need.
 The use of focus group discussion is more
beneficial in this instance.
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 MERITS OF PRIMARY DATA
CONT’D
 Theuse of original, novel and
unprejudiced data
 There is no prior analysis of the data to suit some
particular whim and caprices
 Primary data reinforces reliability and validity as the
data from the field has not been tainted with any
subjective analysis
 First-hand information from the field of research is
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more trustworthy
MERITS OF PRIMARY DATA CONT’D

 Primary data is seen as more reliable as the

process is largely within the control of the
researcher
 Primary data collection elicits full participation
from the respondents
 Respondents’ feelings, emotions, attitudes, opinions,
perception, beliefs, etc can be determined in the
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course of the research
 PROBLEMS IN THE COLLECTION
OF PRIMARY DATA

 Collecting primary data is time-consuming

 Scheduling appointments with respondents

 Meeting and travelling to respondents sites or

places of work

 Collecting large volumes of data may demand

more time for evaluation and analysis
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 PROBLEMS IN THE COLLECTION
OF PRIMARY DATA CONT’D

 Primary data can also be costly and more

expensive

 It demands for a certain degree of skill, tact and

experience to get the required information. This
can prove particularly difficult to any novice
researcher

 The possibility of low rate of response 10

Advantages of Using Secondary
Data
• Cost and time

• High quality data is available

• Opportunity for longitudinal analysis

• More time for data analysis

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 PROBLEMS CONNECTED WITH
THE USE OF SECONDARY DATA
• Absence of key variables

• Lack of familiarity with data

• Complexity of the data

• No control over data quality

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 CHARACTERISTICS OF ‘GOOD’
INFORMATION

 A Good Information should possess five key features:

• Relevance and Validity

• Precision

• Currency

• Completeness

• Clarity 13
 EVALUATING A WEB PAGE
 Authority Who is responsible for the page? What are their
qualifications and associations, and can you verify them?
 Check the footer for name of the web page author, his/her
credentials and title, organizational affiliation. Is the
information verifiable?
 Currency Are dates clear when the website was first created
and edited?
 Check the content for news items, indications that the site is
actively maintained, acknowledgements/responses to visitors
 Coverage What is the focus of the site? Are there clear
headings to illustrate an outline of the content? Is the
navigation within the website clear?
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 EVALUATING A WEB PAGE CONT’D
 Objectivity Are biases clearly stated? Are affiliations
clear?
 Check the content for statement of purpose, to
determine the type of web site and potential audience, for
outside links for information external to the website
 Check the header/footer and URL/domain
(gov.com.edu) to determine organizational source of
website and how this reflects on content type
 Accuracy Are sources of information and factual data
listed, and available for cross-checking
 Check the content for accuracy of spelling, grammar,
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facts (!), and consistency within website
 RESEARCH LIMITATIONS
 Validity

 Reliability

 Generalisability

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 VALIDITY
Does the data collected (and its analysis) address
the research objectives?

For example, how are communications, decision

making, creativity, leadership, job satisfaction,
morale and competiveness measured?

An important concept is triangulation – if you come at

something from different ways do you get the same
result? 17
 RELIABILITY

If you (or someone else) were to repeat the work

would you get the same results?

Some issues
 the sample
 your involvement (reflexivity)
 timing of data collection, for example, interviews

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 GENERALISABILITY

 How generalisable do you want your work to be?

 To what certainty are your findings true of the

population or other cases?

 Applicable to both qualitative study and
quantitative research

Some matters to think about:

 research design
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 sample selection
 CONCLUDING REMARKS
 Primary sources offer the chance to witness a piece of history
very closely, and to see it through the eyes of those who lived
it or lived experience for those involved
 Data, especially primary sources serve as a conduit for
unadulterated access to the record of events in the realm of
social, scientific and political happenings in the course of a
certain period under study, produced by people who lived
during that time.
 Data provides opportunities for both a rich first-hand and
secondary accounts of an event 20