Primary Data Collection

1
Primary Data Collection

• What is primary data?
• How is primary data different from secondary
  data?
• The importance and use of primary data
• The nature of primary data collection (PDC)
• Strategies for gathering primary data
• Passive/Active PDC

2
Introduction to Indirect Methods of Data
Collection

• Introduction to Indirect Methods if data
  Collection
• Physiological Methods
• Disguised Methods
• Study of Physical Traces
• Documentary Methods
• The Biographical Method
• Content Analysis and Projective Methods

3
Introduction to Indirect Methods of Data
Collection

• Introduction
• What method(s) relies very much on the
  involvement, participation and contribution of
  the respondents.
• As do the following two methods
• The interviewing Method
• The Use of Questionnaires

4
Introduction to Indirect Methods of Data
Collection

• How does interviewing and the use of
  questionnaire methods influence the respondents
  in the data collection process?
• What is/are the role(s) of the interviewer in the
  data collection process?
• What are the causes that may result in a data
  collection error?
• How do you plan to reduce the expected errors in
  data collection?

5
Introduction to Indirect Methods of Data
Collection

• What do you mean by the indirect methods of data
  collection? How is/are indirect methods different
  from other methods like interviewing or the use
  of surveys?
• What is/are the type(s) used in the process of
  indirect methods of data collection in business
  research?
• Have you used indirect methods of data collection
  for BR?

6
Introduction to Indirect Methods of Data
Collection

• Indirect methods are diverse in nature and can be
  classified into the following group (Sarantakos,
  1995 204)
• Physiological Methods
• Non-Reactive Methods
• Projective Methods
• Concealed Methods

7
Physiological Methods

• Focus on the physiology of the respondents body
  and aim at measuring aspects of its functioning
• In physiological methods of data collection, the
  respondents are aware of the fact that they are
  being tested. However, the respondents do not
  know what is actually being studied and how these
  results will contribute to the research
  questions. In some cases the respondents may not
  even know that the test is part of a research
  project.

8
Physiological Methods

• This method of data collection is becoming
  important to the research community.
• Please indicate the importance of physiological
  methods in the data collection process of your
  business research project.
• Physiological methods appear in two forms
• Primary Physiological Methods
• Secondary Physiological Methods

9
Disguised Methods

• This method is at present, playing a vital role
  in consumer behavior research,
• This is an indirect method in which respondent is
  aware of being investigated but does not know how
  and in what context the response will be
  evaluated.
• Some examples of this are as follows
• knowledge tests personality tests perception
  tests

10
Study of Physical Traces

• In this regard researches, instead of asking
  people about their habits and preferences, study
  their traces, and make relevant conclusions
  about the people and their social and cultural
  life.
• What are the benefits of this approach to the
  business researcher, and in particular your
  business research project?

11
Documentary Methods

• Documentary methods have been largely used in
  research and in particular, business research
• The documentary method can be applied to
  quantitative research qualitative research and
  case study research.
• The following issues are of importance in the
  process of collection data by employing
  documentary methods
• Types of documents Applications Forms of
  research the process of documentary research and
  advantages and limitations.

12
The Biographical Method

• This method uses written documents as a basis for
  research
• It is largely used as a source of data on the
  study
• How can documents be studied through the
  biographical method?
• What methods are largely used for analysing the
  biographical data?

13
The Biographical Method

• The following five methods are largely used for
  analysing data
• The constructive method, employed when a large
  number of autobiographies are studied and
  documents are studied on the basis of a clear
  criteria, and interpereted so that they present a
  general picture of the research project
• Have you used this method in your BR project? And
  How?

14
The Biographical Method

• Content Analysis, employed to analyse the content
  of the biographical documents by means of
  specific techniques
• The techniques are as follows
• - Selection of a Research Topic
• - Formulation of a Research Topic
• - Research Design
• - Collection of Data Analysis and
  interpretation of data

15
The Biographical Method

• The Exemplification Method, establishes
  relationships between independent-dependant
  variables and tests hypotheses by means of
  examples and illustrations taken from
  biographies.
• Statistical Processing, a quantitative approach
  to biographical data presented in the form of
  criteria and variables. Emphasis is placed on
  measuring dependencies and relationships.

16
The Biographical Method

• Typological Analysis, analyses the biographical
  material and concentrates on establishing the
  classifying categories
• The use if Biographical Method in the Age of the
  Computer.

17
Projective Methods

• Helps to diagnose the personality of the
  respondents and to understand their behaviour,
  relationships and problems.
• The following types of projective techniques are
  used in BR
• - Word Association Fill in Methods
  Count tests Comic-Strip tests Drawing and
  Colour tests.

18
Class Discussion and Presentation

• Please indicate the active and passive data
  sources for your BR project report
• Does the BR depend heavily on active primary data
  collection?How do you apply it in your own BR
  project?
• Discuss what some of the major considerations are
  in the decn. Of what PDC procedure should be used
  in your BR project?

19
Class Discussion and Presentation

• Primary data is generated for specific a research
  purpose, it is data needed to solve a business
  research problem. Elaborate on the different
  types of primary data you are collecting for your
  BR research report. Please develop a
  classification scheme that relates type to
  purpose or use demographic data, socioeconomic
  data, etc.