Primary Data

The Reliability of managerial decisions depends on the quality of data and the quality of the data depends upon the usage of a suitable data collection method. Data can be classified into primary and secondary data. Primary data are those which are collected afresh(again but in a new or different way) and for the first time and thus happen to be original in character and known as Primary data. Primary Data is based on primary source of information. The investigator gets it in original or raw form i.e. it is not been processed earlier- coded, tabulated, classified and summarized in some form for use by someone for some purpose.

 The data which is collected from the field under the control and supervision of an investigator is known as primary data. For ex. Data of a study to determine the infrastructure facilities of educational institutions in a city. Data of a study to determine the morale of the employees in a company.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Primary data

Collection of primary data by sending and collecting schedules and questionnaires through post is less expensive and can be completed in shorter time. It is more valid, reliable and relevant as compared to secondary data since the researcher has full control over what is to be collected, from where it is to be collected etc. Disadvantages It is time consuming in case of personal survey where an enumerator is sent to each and every person in order to get the questionnaires filled. It is expensive since enumerators are to be hired, trained and cost is involved in preparing questionnaire or schedule.

Secondary Data
Secondary data means that are already available that is they refer to the data, which have already been collected and analyzed by someone else for its own use and later the same data is used by a different user or person. It is based on secondary source of information. The source of data is called secondary because this data have already been collected, tabulated and presented in some form by someone else for some purpose. Data which is collected from journals, magazines,government publications, annual reports of companies etc is called secondary data.

 Data may be primary for one agency, may be secondary for the other and vice-versa. For Example, the number of deaths and birth registered by a government office clerk constitute Primary data while the same be secondary data for a student doing demographic research. Thus, we can say primary data is useful for current studies as well as for further studies.

ADVANTAGES and DISADVANTAGES OF SECONDARY DATA

It is economical-The amount of money spent in acquiring secondary data is generally less than that needed to obtain primary data. The various secondary data from libraries can be obtained at no cost. Quickness-Secondary data is instant since it already exists and merely needs to be discovered. Thus the time in collecting secondary data is largely search time and usually requires few hours or few days. Disadvantages Relevance- The data may not fit into the needs of current investigation. It may not be related to the area of present enquiry or it may pertain to some other period of time. In case of secondary data the researcher has no control over the data that is collected since it is being collected by someone else. Therefore , the accuracy and reliability of the collected data can be questioned.

Difference between Primary and Secondary Data

Primary Data
Primary Data are collected Originally. Collected by the investigator himself. Collected by the investigator according to the object of the survey. It is time consuming to collect primary data. A primary data needs more precaution at the time of collection but less at the time of its use.

Secondary Data
Secondary Data are already available and thus these are not original. Collected by some other person. Used and Adjusted by the person according to the object. Less Time Consuming. A Secondary Data needs less precaution at the time of collection but more at the time of its use.

Difference Between Primary and Secondary Data

Primary Data A primary data, after a use is converted into a secondary data. A primary data is collected for the first time by an investigator or agency who makes use of the data for the first time. A Primary data is in the shape of raw material. Secondary Data
A Secondary data can never be converted into a primary data. A Secondary data is collected for the second or any subsequent time by an investigator who makes use of the data for any subsequent time. A secondary data is in the shape of either work-inprogress or finished goods capable of further processing.

Questionnaire
A questionnaire is a document that contains a set of questions printed or typed in a proper sequence. The Questionnaire is a list of questions to be asked from the respondents. It also contains a suitable space where the answers can be recorded. The term Questionnaire refers to a self-administered process where by the respondent himself reads the question and records his answer without the assistance of an interviewer. The questionnaire is sent to each individual who is supposed to answer it with a request to answer the questions and return the questionnaire. Questionnaires are a popular means of collecting data, but are difficult to design and often require many rewrites before an acceptable questionnaire is produced.

Questionnaire
Advantages: Disadvantages:

Can be posted, e-mailed or faxed. Can cover a large number of people . Wide geographic coverage. Relatively cheap. No prior arrangements are needed. Respondents are allowed to answer the questions according to their own views and understanding. Enough time to answer the questions.

Time consuming. Questions have to be relatively simple. Time delay while waiting for responses to be returned. Assumes no literacy problems. Not possible to give assistance if required. Problems with incomplete questionnaires or Non-response on the part of respondents. The control over the questionnaire is lost once it is sent. It is difficult to know whether respondents are truly representative.

Generalized Steps for Designing Questionnaire

In order to collect Primary data various kinds of surveys can be conducted. The success of such survey methods depends upon the strength of the questionnaire used. A Questionnaire consists of a set of well formulated questions to motivate and obtain responses from respondents. Though there is a variation in the form and content of questionnaires from problem to problem, the generalized steps of designing a questionnaire are:

(I ) Deciding on the information required

A Researcher does not start by writing questions. The first step is to decide 'what are the things one needs to know from the respondent in order to meet the survey's objectives?' .In order to have an idea about the kind of information to be collected, the researcher should be aware of what work has been done on the same or similar problems in the past, what factors have not yet been examined etc.

(II) Formulation of Questions and Format

Once the researcher knows what information is required then the researcher can formulate necessary questions in order to meet out the surveys objectives. While formulating a question, its content should be such that each respondent grasps the intention of the question as originally thought by the researcher. Also, the format of each question i.e different types of questions to be used should be decided. There are three different types of questions: a) Open-ended Questions: In these type of questions the respondent is asked to give a reply to a question in his/her own words. No answers are suggested. These are also known as unstructured questions.

For ex. What is your overall opinion about Invertis as aUniversity? Open-ended questions have a number of advantages when utilised in a questionnaire: They allow the respondent to answer in his own words, with no influence by any specific alternatives suggested by the interviewer. These questions may bring even such answers which are not known to the researcher. Open-ended questions also suffer from various disadvantages: Respondents may find it difficult to properly and fully explain their attitudes or motivations.

 Respondents may not give a full answer simply because they may forget to mention important points. Data collected is in the form of comments - it has to be coded and reduced to manageable categories. This can be time consuming for analysis. b) Close-Ended Questions/Structured Questions: These types of questions can be of three formats: 1. Questions with multiple responses out of which respondents have to select one or more choices.

For ex. What is the number of dependents on you? a) None b) one c) Two d)three e) Four and above 2. Questions with rating scale. For ex. Joint family system leads to better GDP of a nation. Please tick one of the following: a) Strongly Agree b) Moderately Agree c) Strongly disagree d) Moderately Disagree e) Neither agree nor disagree

3. Close-ended questions with only two responses. For ex. Have you used any of our companys products? a) Yes b) No These type of questions have a number of advantages: It provides the respondent with an easy method of indicating his answer - he does not have to think about how to articulate his answer. It 'prompts' the respondent so that the respondent has to rely less on memory in answering a question. Responses can be easily classified, making analysis very straightforward.

Disadvantages are also present when using such questions They do not allow the respondent the opportunity to give a different response to those suggested. They 'suggest' answers that respondents may not have considered before.

(III) Deciding Question Wording

The wording of each question should fully convey its meaning to the respondents. The degree of the level of understanding varies from person to person. If questions are not easily understood by the respondents ,they will respond with different answers to questions, which will lead to misleading research findings.

Guidelines for Question wording are as follows: 1. The vocabulary used should be simple, direct and familiar to all respondents. 2. The words of the question should not have vague or ambiguous(not clear) meaning. for ex. Question such as 'What is your income?' is vague and one is likely to get many different responses with different dimensions. Respondents may interpret the question in different terms, for example: hourly pay? weekly pay? yearly pay? income before tax? income after tax? income in kind as well as cash? income for self or family? monthly income?

The use of ambiguous words should also be avoided. For example: "Do you regularly service your tractor?" The respondents' understanding and interpretation of the term 'regularly' will differ. Some may consider that regularly means once a week, others may think once a year is regular. 3. As far as possible each question should have single part. Otherwise, the respondents will have difficulty in answering all the pats of the questions. 4. The instructions of the questions should be clear. 5. Researchers should avoid long questions. The fewer words in a question the better. Respondents' memories are limited and absorbing the meaning of long sentences can be difficult: in listening to something they may not have much interest in, the respondents' minds are likely to wander, they may hear certain words but not others, or they may remember some parts of what is said but not all.

6. The questions should be such that it is understood by all the respondents included in the sampling list. . Researchers must be sensitive to the fact that some of the people he/she will be interviewing do not have a high level of education. Sometimes he/she will have no idea how well or badly educated the respondents are until he/she gets into the field. 7. Questions should not be leading to answers which will suffer from biases. For example," What did you dislike about the product you have just tried?" The respondent is not given the opportunity to indicate that there was nothing he/she disliked about the product. A less biased approach would have been to ask a preliminary question along the lines of, "Did you dislike any aspect of the product you have just tried?", and allow him/her to answer yes or no.

(IV) Appropriate Sequence of Questions/Putting Questions into a meaningful order

After formulating necessary Questions ,they should be arranged in an appropriate sequence such that respondents are able to have better understanding of them and provide accurate responses. While deciding the sequence of questions, a researcher should keep in mind the following points: 1.First few questions can be related to personal details of the respondents. 2. Opening/introductory questions should be easy to answer and not in any way threatening to the respondents.

The first question is crucial because it is the respondent's first exposure to the interview and sets the tone for the nature of the task to be performed. If they find the first question difficult to understand, or beyond their knowledge and experience, or embarrassing in some way, they are likely to break off immediately. If, on the other hand, they find the opening question easy and pleasant to answer, they are encouraged to continue. 3. Questions should be related to each other. There should be a meaningful and logical order of the questions.

4. Respondents become bored quickly and restless when asked similar questions continuously. It usually improves response, therefore, to vary the respondent's task from time to time. An open-ended question here and there may provide much-needed relief from a long series of questions in which respondents have been forced to limit their replies to pre-coded categories. 5. After opening questions, the main body of the questionnaire should contain focussed questions relating to objectives of the research. 6.Since it is natural for a respondent to become increasingly indifferent to the questionnaire as it nears the end. Because of impatience or fatigue, he may give careless answers to the later questions. Those questions, therefore, that are of special importance should, if possible, be included in the earlier part of the questionnaire.

(V) Pre-Testing

Of Questionnaire

Even after the researcher has proceeded along the lines suggested. Until it has actually been used in interviews and with respondents, it is impossible to say whether it is going to achieve the desired results. For this reason it is necessary to pre-test the questionnaire before it is used in a full-scale survey, to identify any mistakes that need correcting. The purpose of pretesting the questionnaire is to determine: whether the questions as they are worded will achieve the desired results whether the questions have been placed in the best order. whether the questions are understood by all classes of respondent.

whether additional or specifying questions are needed or whether some questions should be eliminated whether the instructions to interviewers are adequate. (VI) Review of Questions For Improvements The purpose of pre-testing of questionnaire is to obtain information to improve its content ,format and sequence. Based on the information, the questionnaire should be revised in its format, content and sequence for the final use in the survey.

Methods of Collecting Primary Data

There are several methods of collecting primary data: Direct Personal Observation

Interview
Questionnaire

Observation
Observation involves recording the behavioral patterns of people by investigators own direct observation without asking from the respondent. For example, in a study relating to human behavior, the investigator instead of asking the brand of the wrist watch used by the respondent, may himself look at the watch.

Some examples of observation method are:

Continuous monitoring of stock exchange index and share prices movements through newspaper and magazines is an example of observation method. For ex. An investigator can observe customers visiting a banks branch .He can observe behaviour of customers like patience while waiting for their transaction, way of dealing with bank employees, helping fellow customers in filling different forms, opinion of customers about the bank through their casual discussions.

Observation
Uncontrolled or controlled Uncontrolled observation involves observing behavior as it takes place in the natural environment, for example, eating hamburgers in a fast food outlet. In controlled observation, the respondents behavior is observed in an artificial environment, for example, a food tasting session.

Non-participant or Participant In Non-participant observation, the observer observes as a detached person without any attempt on his part to experience through participation what others feel. In participant observation, the researcher observes by making himself. more or less, a member of the group he is observing so that he can experience what the members of the group experience.

Observation
Disguised or undisguised In disguised observation, respondents are unaware they are being observed and thus behave naturally. Disguise is achieved, for example, by hiding, or using hidden equipment or people disguised as shoppers. In undisguised observation, respondents are aware they are being observed. There is a danger that people behave differently when being observed.

Merits & Demerits

Merits
This method is independent of respondents willingness to respond as such it demands less cooperation on the part of respondent as in case of Questionnaire or interview method. The information obtained under this method relates to what is currently happening, it helps to collect data where and when an event or activity is occurring. This method helps capture the behaviour of customers directly.

CONTINUED..
Demerits
It is an expensive method since we need to hire a no. of observers and also train them. It takes a long time to collect the data from all the respondents selected. The information provided by this method is very limited. Since it does not increase your understanding of why people behave as they do. People usually perform better when they know they are being observed, although indirect observation may decrease this problem. It suffers from personal biases of investigators with will distort the findings.

Interview
Interviewing is a technique that is primarily used to gain an understanding of the underlying reason and motivation for peoples attitudes, preferences or behavior. Interviews can be personal as well as telephonic interview.

Interview
Personal interview

It is a survey method of data collection which employs a questionnaire. In a personal interview the interviewer asks the questions to the respondent in a face-to-face situation. The interview may take place at the respondent's home or at a central location, such as a shopping mall.

Types of Personal Interviews

1. Door-to-door Interviewing
Under this interviewing the interviewer will go to the residence of each selected respondent and obtain responses for the items in the questionnaire by direct interviewing. It is a costly and time-consuming process. 2. Executive Interviewing It is same as door-to-door interviewing except that the interviewees are not the customers but the industrial executives and the products are the industrial goods. It is a costly and time consuming process. The average waiting time of the interviewers at the offices of the executives before commencing interview process is too long bcoz of the busy schedule of the executives.

3. Mall Intercept Interview

This type of interview is conducted in shopping malls or complexes where a diverse spectrum of customers can be interviewed. The people or shoppers visiting the mall will be used as respondents for filling the questionnaires. In this method, the interviewers are stationed in a particular place of an area and the people who come to that area will be sampled and served with questionnaire. It is a less costly and quick process.

 Individuals who visit malls are not a representative of the entire population. An additional problem with intercept interviews at malls where research firms maintain permanent facilities is "respondent burnout," That is, a significant portion of a given mall's customers shop at the mall regularly. over time, these regular shoppers will be randomly. selected into numerous studies. Both their willingness to cooperate and the nature of their responses will change as they participate in more and more studies.

4. Self-Administered Interview
In this method, the respondents will be issued with questionnaires and they will be asked to fill them on their own. Thus, in this method interviewers will be absent while filling the questionnaires. It is a less costly and quick process. This method has the advantage of removing interviewers bias.

 But due to the absence of the interviewer the respondents may give some irrelevant responses to some questions for which the respondents have limited knowledge/doubt.

Interview
Telephone interview
This is an alternative form of interview to the personal, face-to-face interview. This method of collecting information consists in contacting respondents on telephone itself. Telephone interview is considered to be a cost effective data collection method because of the following reasons: a) The travel time of interviewers is totally eliminated b) The cost of travel of interviewers is also eliminated. c) Greater possibility of reaching the customers all over the geography

d) Total time of conducting the interview of the sample is least when compared to other methods. e) There is a greater probability of reaching the respondent unlike the non-response problems of personal interview. Though telephone interview has many advantages,it has some drawbacks: Interviewee may discontinue conversation in the mid-way unlike personnel interview in which there is greater probability of completing the interview fully bcoz of the rapport developed between the interviewer and the interviewee through personal contact.

The unique features of telephone interview are:

Selection of Telephone NumbersThe telephone numbers should be selected such that they cover the entire population of interest. The methods for selection of telephone numbers are as follows: a) Telephone directory reference-In this method telephone numbers are selected randomly from the telephone directory.

b) Systematic Random-digit dialing- In this method Initially a geographic area is decided. Within this area code a starting telephone number is randomly selected. Then a constant number(sampling interval) is added to the initial number to get the second number which is to be dialed. Similarly the same constant number is to be added to the immediate preceding number and this process continues till the remaining number of telephone numbers are generated. Because there is a random starting point, each telephone number within an area code has an equal chance of being called

c) Plus-one Dialing-It is telephone directory assisted method. in this method required number of telephone numbers are selected from one or more telephone directories. Then the constant one is added to each of the last four digits of each selected telephone number. This generates a new list of telephone numbers. This list may contain the telephone numbers which are not present in telephone directories bcoz the telephone numbers of new subscribers will be absent in telephone directories till they are updated.

Call Outcomes
In telephone Interview, the following outcomes of a call are noticed: 1. The telephone number is not in service. 2. The number dialed is busy. 3. No one answers the call. 4. Answering Machine responds. 5. The call is responded by someone else instead of targetted respondent. 6. The call is responded by the targeted respondent.

Following are important guidelines for handling call outcomes: 1. If the telephone is not in service, then eliminate that number from the sampling list. 2. If the number dialed is busy, then contact that number later. 3. If the call is not answered by any one, try later. 4. If the call is answered by an answering machine, then leave a message about yourself and the purpose of your call, and dial the same number later. 5. If the call is responded by someone else instead of targetted respondent, then introduce yourself and brief about the purpose of your study and try that number later.

6. If the call is responded by the targetted respondent and if he/she is free, conduct the interview, otherwise contact him/her again at his/her convenience.

Call Timing
The timing of the calls should be such that maximum number of respondents are available. The respondents can be classified into working, non-working ,and business groups. For consumer survey, it is preferable to call the respondents belonging to all three classes in the evening time during weekdays, and day time during weekends. For industrial survey, the executives should be called during 10:00 A.M. to 4 PM only on weekdays.

Call Report
The Interviewer should record telephone numbers called, and for each number, the name of the respondent, call date and time, duration of the call, any special remark about the respondent in the call report. This Report will act as database for the Interviewers which is served to manage the respondents who are yet to be interviewed.

MAIL SURVEY
It is a data collection method in which questionnaires are mailed to potential respondents who in turn fill and return them at their convenience. This method is useful for respondents with higher educational and literacy levels. Advantages of this method include: 1. it is easy and relatively low-cost to let the postal service do the leg work of delivering the questionnaires. 2. Respondents can answer at their convenience.

3. Any potential interviewer bias may be reduced due to lack of contact with the interviewer. 4. Wider coverage of population. It is possible to have a larger universe with a mail survey because it does not require personal contact between the respondents and the researcher. 5. Less time of data collection. Disadvantages of this method include: 1. Response rates from individuals with lower literacy levels are often too small to be useful. 2. The identity of the respondents is not known to the interviewers. 3. The questionnaire may be filled by the family members of the respondent. 4. Some respondents may not return filled-in questionnaires.

5. There may be delay on the part of the respondents in returning the filled-in questionnaires. In mail survey, the researcher selects the required number of potential respondents from mailing list provided by some organizations. Then a carefully designed questionnaire is despatched to each of the potential respondents. The mailing of the questionnaires involves the following tasks: a) Selecting the type of Envelope b) Determining mode of postage c) Designing covering letter d) Designing questionnaire length,content,layout and format. e) Type of incentive ,if any, to be given to the respondents.

In some cases, even before mailing the questionnaires, a notification is sent to the respondents which makes them aware of the purpose of the study before hand. After mailing the questionnaires ,reminders are to be sent to the respondents at predetermined intervals to speed up the matter. If the response rate is very poor, then more reminders should be mailed to the respondents. Inspite of this effort, if the response rate is low,to cope up with the deficit number of respondents ,either the personal interview or the telephone interview may be used.

FAX SURVEYS
In this survey, the questionnaire is sent to the respondents through fax or mail. Advantage of this method is that it is a quick process. The success of this method depends upon the infrastructural facilities(fax machine) available with the respondents. Hence, It is used only for the organizational respondents for whom such facilities are available.

WEB SURVEYS
In this method a questionnaire is posted or uploaded on a secure web site. The invitation to participate in the web survey would be posted on a company web site which is commonly accessed by the target respondents. If a respondent visits the company web site and clicks on the invitation ,then the respondent will be connected to the secure web site, where a detailed interview is conducted. After finishing the interview, the respondent is placed back to his/her original point of entry into the system. The moment a respondent finishes the interview on a secure web site ,the researcher can view the results of the interview instantaneously at his/her station.

 Advantages of Web surveys include: 1. Faster speed of responses-A survey posted on a popular Web site can collect thousands of responses in just a few hours. 2. Substantially reduced cost-Once setup is completed, there is virtually no cost associated with a web survey; therefore, data from both large and small samples cost the same to process. Disadvantage of this method include: This method is limited only to those respondents who owen computers and are internet users or visit web sites very often on rental machines.

Secondary Data
Secondary Data are collected from sources which have been already created for the purpose of first-time use and future uses. Secondary data are existing data generated for a problem other than the one at hand. Secondary data consists of information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose. The sources for secondary data can be classified as internal (those inside the organization) sources and external(those outside the organization) sources.

Internal Sources of Secondary Data

Most organizations routinely gather, record and store internal data relating to different activities such as information recorded from documents such as sales invoices. With the help of this information sales volume by product can be identified, sales can be forecasted on the basis of past data. Other sources of internal data include files of salespersons call reports, employee complaints, customer feedback about product failures, after-sales service etc. ,distributors feedback on timeliness of stock replenishment, quality of product etc. Besides this, in large organizations consisting of many divisions,the research conducted by one division may prove to be useful for another division. Thus, before going in for external sources ,the researchers should search all sources within

the company.

External Sources of Secondary data

External secondary data are data that are generated or recoded by a source other than the organization. Following are the different external sources of secondary data: a) Books and Periodicals-One of the first places to look for secondary data is a library. Periodicals(magazines, journals, and newspapers) are materials that are published at regular intervals (monthly, quarterly, daily, etc.).Professional Journals such as Journal of business research, Journal of finance and quantitative analysis,j ournal of marketing ,journal of academy of management etc. and business periodicals such as Fortune and Business Week etc. contain much useful material.

b) Government Data/government Sources- it includes data published by local, state, national or international governments. for ex. Census of Population provides a wealth of data. for example, ministry number of committees and commissions for the purpose of some enquiry. The reports of such commissions and committees are submitted and published after a specific period. c) Trade Associations-Associations frequently publish or maintain detailed information on industry sales, growth patterns, and the like. Furthermore, they may conduct special research studies of factors relevant to their industry. These materials may be published in the form of annual reports, as part of a regular trade journal. In some cases, they are available only on request from the association. Most libraries maintain reference works, such as the Encyclopedia of Associations that list the various associations.
of agriculture and irrigation publishes monthly report on Agriculture Situation in India. The state and central governments appoint a

d) Media Sources- Information on a broad range of subjects is available from broadcast and print media. Media frequently conduct research studies about various aspects and make reports of survey findings available free of charge. e) Commercial Sources/Private Research Organizations-There are several organizations whose business is to sell and /or publish information related to different aspects. These organizations offer information in published formats or as internet databases. f) Internet Search Engines-with the help of an Internet search engine, we can expand a search. People search the Internet using a variety of resource discovery tools called search engines, such as AltaVista, Yahoo, and HotBot.

They are Web sites in themselves, accessible through browsers, where you can search for other sites that contain specific keywords. You simply type in the topic, or several key words about what you are looking for, and the search engine will provide Web sites that have information related to that topic. For example, you will get a list of sites by keying in one or more words that best describes what you want. Other external sources are: International Reports: This includes official publications of international bodies like IMF, UNESCO, WHO, etc Official publications of RBI, and other Banks, LIC, Trade Unions, Stock Exchange, Chambers of Commerce, etc