Secondary Data Primary Data

 Secondary data is any published information

that you have not generated but can be applied
to you own study
 Helps to identify the problem
 Helps to better define the problem
 Helps to formulate an appropriate research
design (e.g. by identifying key variables)
 May answer certain research questions and
hypothesis
 Helps to interpret primary data more
insightfully
 Usefulness to the current problem may be
limited in relevance and accuracy
 The objectives and methods used may not be
completely current or dependable
 Methodology used to collect data
 Accuracy
 Currency
 Objective of collecting original data
 Nature of the data collected
 Dependability
 Types of Secondary Data
(NOT exhaustive)
Internal
•Sickness absence statistics, employee satisfaction surveys

External
•Government / Quasi-Govt. Reports
•Statistics
•Consultancy Reports (single client / syndicated)
•Theories & prescriptive texts
•Academic research publications (journals)
•Publications from stakeholder groups / lobby organisations
•Industry publications
•Competitor reports and press releases
•The Media
•Previous student research (e.g. thesis abstracts)
 Exploratory
 to find out what is happening
 to seek new insights
 to ask questions
 to assess phenomena in a new light
 usually but not always qualitative
 To portray an accurate profile of persons,
events or situations
 Requires extensive previous knowledge of the
situation to be researched or described so that
you know appropriate aspects on which to
gather information
 May be qualitative and/or quantitative
 Seeks information of a situation or problem,
usually in the form of causal relationships
 May be qualitative and/or quantitative
 Experiment: measuring the effects of manipulating
one variable on another
 Survey: collection of information in a standardised
form from groups of people
 Case study: development of detailed, intensive
knowledge about a single case or of a small number
of related cases
 The researcher must vary at least one
independent variable to assess its effects on a
subject’s behaviour
 The researcher must have the power to assign
subjects to the various experimental conditions
 The researcher must control extraneous
variables that may influence behaviour
 the definition of a theoretical hypothesis
 the selection of samples of individuals from
know populations
 allocation of samples to different
experimental conditions
 introduction of planned change on one or
more variables
 measurement on a small number of
variables
 control of other variables
 Can you define the elements of the research
to the level that a hypothesis can be set
 How adequately can you control aspects of
the experiment
 How much information do you lose by not
having real world exposure to the research
 Will an experiment provide the opportunity
to identify meaning as wall as causality?
 If the actual subject focus exists outside of a
laboratory how meaningful are laboratory
generated results
 Collection of information in a standardised
format from groups of respondents
 Principle tools:
 Questionnaires
 Observation techniques
 Interviews (individual / group)
 Projective Techniques
 conduct literature search to identify specific
questions
 design a questionnaire
 identify sample and sampling technique
 pilot questionnaire - make changes
 send out survey
 follow up
 conduct analysis - report findings
 The use of multiple methods to support your
findings

FINDINGS

Quantitative
Literature
Qualitative