BUSINESS RESEARCH

METHODS

LECTURE 7

SAMPLING & SAMPLING TECHNIQUES

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 KEY TERMINOLOGIES &
CONCEPTS IN SAMPLING
• Population – the universe of units from which
one selects the sample. The units can be people,
nations, cities, regions, organisations, etc.
– The population has much wider meaning than what is
ordinarily used to identify an entire population
• Sample – the section of the population one selects
for the study or investigation.
– It is a compartment or subset within the population
based on predetermined criterion

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 KEY TERMINOLOGIES &
CONCEPTS IN SAMPLING CONT’D
• Sampling frame – The listing of all units in the
population from which the sample will be chosen,
e.g. Individuals, institutions, household
• Representative sample – a sample that truly
mirrors the population so that it is seen as a
microcosm of the population
• Sampling bias – a misrepresentation or distortion
in the representativeness of the sample that results
when members of the population have little or no
chance of being chosen for inclusion the sample
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ILLUSTRATION

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FEATURES OF A POPULATION
– Homogeneous – all cases are similar, e.g. bottles of beer on a
production line;
– Stratified – contain strata or layers, e.g. people with different
levels of income: low, medium, high;
– Proportional stratified – contains strata of known proportions
e.g. percentages of different nationalities of students in a
university;
– Categorised by type – contains distinctive groups, e.g. of
apartment buildings – towers, slabs, villas, tenement blocks;
– Classified by location – different groups according to where
they are e.g. animals in different habitats – desert, equatorial
forest, savannah, tundra, etc.
 KEY TERMINOLOGIES &
CONCEPTS IN SAMPLING CONT’D
• Probability sample – a sample that has been
selected using random selection such that each
unit in the population has a known chance of
being chosen
• Non-probability sample – a sample that has
not been selected using a random selection
technique. This means that the selection of
some units in the population are more probable
than others

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 PROBABILITY AND NON-
PROBABILITY SAMPLING FORMS
TYPES OF PROBABILITY TYPES OF NON-
SAMPLE PROBABILITY SAMPLE

•Simple Random •Convenience Sampling

•
•Systematic Sample •Snowball Sampling

•Stratified Random •Quota Sampling

Sampling

•Cluster Sampling •Judgemental

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 KEY TERMINOLOGIES &
CONCEPTS IN SAMPLING CONT’D
• Sampling error – the difference between a sample
and the population from which it is selected, in spite
of selecting a probability sample, e.g.
unrepresentativeness of the taken sample

• Non-sampling error – Identifies the differences

between the population and the sample that arise
either from deficiencies in the sampling method. This
can result from insufficient sampling frame or non-
response rate due to such problems as poor
interviewing, bad data processing or poor wording of
questions.
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 KEY TERMINOLOGIES &
CONCEPTS IN SAMPLING CONT’D
• Simple Random Sample – each unit of the
population has an equal probability of inclusion in
the sample
• Systematic Sample – Process of selecting units
directly from the sample frame without using any
sense of randomness, such as 6, 26, 46, 66, 86,
etc.
• Stratified Sample – it is a proportional
representation of the different categories within
the selected unit.
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ILLUSTRATION OF STRATIFIED SAMPLING
TECHNIQUE
Source: Explorable.com

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 PROBABILITY SAMPLING

• Cluster sampling – Involves the selection

groupings within the units but not the primary
sampling unit, e.g. 10 out 100 firms for
interviews involving 5000 employees in which
500 each of from the 10 companies would be
interviewed.

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EXAMPLE OF CLUSTER SAMPLING
source: explorable.com

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KEY TERMINOLOGIES & CONCEPTS IN
SAMPLING CONT’D
• Convenience sampling – A sample that is readily
available to the investigator in terms of accessibility

• Snowball sampling – a situation of making an initial

contact with few small group of people who are
important to the research topic. The researcher then
uses the small group to get in touch with others
– Facilitated by current sample elements
– The sample may well not be representative
– It is not advisable to use in quantitative study, rather it can
perfectly be used in a qualitative research strategy

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 KEY TERMINOLOGIES &
CONCEPTS IN SAMPLING CONT’D
• Quota sampling – Necessary features or
characteristics are applied to divide the sample to
enhance its representativeness
– Normally used in market research or political opinion
poll
– The rationale of this sampling technique is to produce
a sample that reflects a population in terms of the
relative proportion in different categories such as age
groups, gender, tribal groupings, etc.
• Judgemental – Intentionally choose sample to
conform to some criteria or conditions of the study
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 KEY TERMINOLOGIES &
CONCEPTS IN SAMPLING CONT’D
• Non-response – a source of non-sampling
error that is particularly likely to happen when
individuals are being sampled. This happens
whenever some members of the sample refuse
to cooperate, cannot be reached or cannot
provide the needed data for some reason.
• Census – The process of enumerating the total
population

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 KEY TERMINOLOGIES &
CONCEPTS IN SAMPLING CONT’D
• Response rate – the percentage of a sample that
does actually participate. Calculating the response
rate is not pretty straightforward.
• One should bear the following in mind:
– Not every response will be included, e.g. Uncompleted
questionnaire, suspicion of lack of seriousness,
• It can be worked out thus:
Total Number of responses x100
Total number in sample – ineligible

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 EXAMPLE OF RESPONSE RATE
CALCULATION
• Kofi administered an email questionnaire to
students who had left the supply chain and
information systems department over the past 10
years. He obtained a list of the 520 past students
from the registrar over this period and selected
50% sample. He obtained a response from 140. In
addition, his list of the former students was
inaccurate and ten of those he contacted were
ineligible to respond, having let the department
over five years earlier.
• What would Kofi’s response rate be?

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 SOLUTION
Kofi’s total response rate can be calculated thus:

Response rate = Total Number of responses x100

Total number in sample – ineligible

140 = 140x100 = 56%

260 – 10 250

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