Collected and related information developed from data already in the firm External Databases Outside sources of secondary information Hackney Library has over 50 business research databases Ex: ABA Inform, Lexis Nexus Secondary Data – A Review Existing statistics, information Gathered for another purpose Has positive and negative aspects develop an approach, less costly Strengths: defines the problem, helps to Weaknesses: lack of relevance, inaccurate, availability, questionable sources, outdated The Right Research Design Depends on the following factors: Nature of the problem Discovery and definition Inquiring, counting or testing Finite timeliness and budgets In-house versus research provider Company culture and view of research Preciseness of research questions Time and Money Internal and External Resources Management co-operation Marketing Research By mammon Question Types Open-Ended Question An interview question that encourages an answer phrased in exponent’s own words. An interview question that asks the respondent to make a selection from a limited list of responses. A closed-ended question designed to measure the intensity of a respondent’s answer.

Closed-Ended Question Salesperson’s Question Questionnaire Design Closed-ended and scaled-response questions are easier to tabulate than open-ended questions because response choices are fixed For example, suppose a food study asked this question: “Besides meat, which of the following items do you normally id to a taco that you prepare at home? ” A varied selection is provided. But suppose a respondent answers by saying, “l usually add a green, avocado-tasting hot sauce” or “l cut up a mixture of lettuce and spinach. ” How would you code the replies below ? As you can see, the questionnaire needs an “other” category.