Chapter Twelve

Quality Control and Initial Analysis of Data

Chapter Objectives
Define editing and distinguish between a field edit and an office edit Define coding and outline the steps it involves Compute measures of central tendency and dispersion of the data for each variable in a data set State the potential uses of frequency distribution or one- way tables

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Data Analysis at Rockbridge Associates: Data Integrity

Data integrity is the foundation for successful marketing research Rockbridge ensures integrity in the collection and processing of the data by a number of quality control checks for
mail surveys telephone surveys web surveys

Rockbridge ensures data integrity in how the results are interpreted and explained to management

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Editing
Editing is the process of examining completed data collection forms and taking whatever corrective action is needed to ensure the data are of high quality
Preliminary or field edit Final or office edit

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Field Edit
A field edit, or preliminary edit, is a quick examination of completed data collection forms, usually on the same day they are filled out Objectives
Ensure that proper procedures are being followed in selecting respondents, interviewing them, and recording their responses Fix fieldwork deficiencies before they turn into major problems

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Office Edit
A final, or office edit, verifies response consistency and accuracy
Makes necessary corrections Determines whether some or all parts of a data collection form should be discarded

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What Is Wrong With this Response

A respondent said he was 18 years old but indicated that he had a Ph.D. when asked for his highest level of education.

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Editing Can Help Uncover

Improper field procedures Incomplete interviews Improperly conducted interviews Technical problems with the questionnaire or interview Respondent rapport problems Consistency problems that can be isolated and reconciled

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Improper Field Procedures

Wrong questionnaire form used Interview inadvertently not taken

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Incomplete Interviews
Questions not asked Directions not followed (proper segments of the questionnaire were not administered)

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Improperly Conducted Interviews

The wrong respondent interviewed (e.g., son instead of father) Questions misinterpreted by interviewer or respondent Evidence of bias or influencing of answers. Failure to probe for adequate answers or the use of poor probes Interviewer's illegible writing and/or style. Interviewer recorded information which identified a respondent whose anonymity should have been protected

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Improperly Conducted Interviews (Contd)

Interviewer apparently does not understand what type of responses constitute an answer to the actual question asked Interviewer does not understand what the objective of the question is and thus accepts an improper frame of reference for the respondent's answer Other evidence of need for training or instructions to be given to interviewer
failure to write down probes, wrong abbreviations, failure to follow directions

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Technical Problems With the Questionnaire or Interview

Space was not provided for needed information The presence of unanticipated or unusually frequent extreme responses to questions, indicating a possible need for rewording of certain questions Inappropriate or unworkable interviewer instructions not detected in the pretest The order in which questions were asked introduces confusion, resentment, or bias into the respondent's answers

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Respondent Rapport Problems

Frequent refusal to answer certain questions. Reports of abnormal termination of the interview (or presence of hostility) due to sensitive questions Evidence that respondent and interviewer are playing the "game" of "What answer do you want me to give?" Evidence that the presence of other people in the interview situation is causing problems

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Consistency Problems That Can Be Isolated and Reconciled

Contradictory answers
Reports no savings in one section of the interview but reports interest from bank accounts in another section

Misclassification
Mortgage debt improperly reported as installment debt

Impossible answers
Reports paying $600 for a new Edsel in 1970 - the car should have been recorded as a "used" car; or weekly income reported on the income-per-month line

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Consistency Problems That Can Be Isolated and Reconciled (Contd)

Unreasonable (and probably erroneous) responses
Respondent reports borrowing $2,000 for two years to buy a car but reported monthly payments multiplied by 24 months are less than $2,000 Respondent reports that the house value is $90,000 while income is $2,000 per year and the respondent claims less than a high school education

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Preventing Errors
Careful planning before fieldwork begins Automating data entry

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Coding
Coding broadly refers to the set of all tasks associated with transforming edited responses into a form that is ready for analysis Steps
Transforming responses to each question into a set of meaningful categories Assigning numerical codes to the categories Creating a data set suitable for computer analysis

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Transforming Responses into Meaningful Categories

A structured question is pre-categorized Responses to a nonstructured or open-ended question to be grouped into a meaningful and manageable set of categories

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The Best Way to Treat "Don't Know" Responses

Infer an actual response dubious validity Classify the "don't know's" as a separate response category for each question

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Missing-Value Category
A missing value can stem from
A respondent's refusal to answer a question An interviewer's failure to ask a question or record an answer or a "don't know" that does not seem legitimate

Best way to treat missing value responses

Sound questionnaire design Tight control over fieldwork

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Assigning Numerical Codes

Assign appropriate numerical codes to responses that are not already in quantified form To assign numerical codes, the researcher should facilitate computer manipulation and analysis of the responses

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Coding Multiple Response

Which of the following countries have you visited during the past 12 months?
________Canada ________England ________France ________Germany ________Japan ________Mexico

Need six variables, each relating to a specific country and having two possible values. For example, 1= No and 2 = Yes Six columns must be set aside in the data spreadsheet to record responses to this question
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Multiple Response Question Rank Order Question

Please rank the following fast-food restaurants by placing a 1 beside the restaurant you think is best overall, a 2 beside the restaurant you think is second best, and so on.
__________Burger King __________McDonald's __________Wendy's __________Whataburger

This question requires as many variables (and columns) as there are objects to be ranked 4 separate variables are needed

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Creating a Data Set

Organized collection of data records Each sample unit within the data set is called a case or observation Structure of a Data Set
The number of observations = n The total number of variables embedded in the questionnaire is m, then

Data set = n x m matrix of numbers

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Table 12.3 Structure of a Data Sheet

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Preliminary Data Analysis: Basic Descriptive Statistics

Preliminary data analysis examines the central tendency and the dispersion of the data on each variable in the data set

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Table 12.4 Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion for Different Types of Variables

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Measurement Level of Data Pertaining to Variable Nominal

Measures of Central Tendency
Mode: Most frequently occurring response

Measures of Dispersion
Strictly speaking, the concept of dispersion is not meaningful for nominal data An idea about the distribution of responses can be obtained by examining their relative frequencies of occurrence

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Measurement Level of Data Pertaining to Variable Ordinal

Measures of Central Tendency
Median: 50th percentile response

Measures of Dispersion
Range: Defined by the highest and lowest response values Interquartile range: Difference between the 75th and 25th percentile responses

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Measurement Level of Data Pertaining to Variable Interval

Measures of Central Tendency
Mean: Arithmetic average of response values

Measures of Dispersion
Standard deviation: As defined in Chapter 9

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Measurement Level of Data Pertaining to Variable Ratio

Measures of Central Tendency
Mean: Arithmetic average of response values

Measures of Dispersion
Standard deviation: As defined in Chapter 9

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Mode
The value that occurs most frequently

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Table 12.5 How Long Have You Been Using the Services of National? Computing Mode

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Median
The observation below which 50 percent of the observations fall

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Table 12.6 Length of Time Service Used Responses from 20 Customers

How long have you been using the services of National? 4 4 3 4 4 3 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 1 4 1 4 3

1= Less than a year; 2 = 1 to less than 2 years; 4 = 5 years or more Arranging the 20 values in ascending order: 1 4 1 4 1 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 4

3 = 2 to less than 5 years;

4 4

4 4

Because the sample size = 20, there are two middle values: 4 and 4. The median is, therefore, the average of the two middle values = 4.

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Table 12.7 Computing Median for Length of Time Service Used

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Mean
n = Number of units in the sample xi = data obtained from each sample unit I = sample mean value, given by X

(X
i 1

n
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Table 12.8 Overall Quality of Services Provided by National Computing Mean

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Measures of Dispersion
Range Variance Standard Deviation

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Range
Range is the difference between the largest and smallest value The simplest measure of dispersion

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Variance
Variance of a set of data is a measure of deviation of the data around the arithmetic mean (xi x )2 S2 = ---------n-1

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Standard Deviation
Standard deviation is the square root of the variance

n (xi x )2 i=1---------n-1

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Table 12.9 Overall Quality of Services Provided by National: Computing Range, Variance, and Standard Deviation

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Frequency Distribution: One-Way Tabulation

One-way tabulation is a table showing the distribution of data pertaining to categories of a single variable

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Table 12.10 Age and Length of Time Service Used

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Table 12.10 Age and Length of Time Service Used (Contd)

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Why Averages May be Misleading

Researchers tested a new sauce product and found
Mean rating of the taste test was close to the middle of the scale, which had "very mild" and "very hot" as its bipolar adjectives

Researchers conclusion
Consumers need really neither really hot nor really mild sauce

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Why Averages May be Misleading (Contd)

Deeper examination revealed
The existence of a large proportion of consumers who wanted the sauce to be mild and an equally large proportion who wanted it to be hot nor really mild sauce

Moral of the story

A clear understanding of the distribution of responses can help a researcher avoid erroneous inferences

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