The dilemma presented is you work for an Internet service provider (ISP) and wish to estimate the number of people in your service area with Internet connections in their households.
How would you do this using Secondary Data
The first step in the process would be to gather secondary data prior to gathering primary data. Information regarding the use of at home Internet service can be pulled from the company database along with telephone records. This would give a preliminary estimate as to the total number of people with at home Internet service in the service area. The weakness to this would be accuracy, which may be lessened due to the fact that the customer may have dropped their Internet service. Therefore this information may not have been recorded in the database.
How would you do this using Primary Data
Reliability and validity of primary data is foundational to having confidence in the research results. The key information-gathering tool used to estimate the number of people in the service area with Internet connection in their households was conducting telephone interviews based on the secondary data that was uncovered.
Compare and Contrast both Approaches Based on, Cost, Speed, and Reliability
Cost
Company Database – Use of the company database is relatively in expensive. The data already exists so the only cost realized would be the cost associated with running the program and possibly the cost of an employee to do this.
Telephone Interviews – The cost of doing this would be relatively higher than using company records largely due to the fact that you need people to make the phone calls.
Speed
Company Database – The timeframe for this would be quick. Typically company databases are already pre-programmed to run this type of data, so it would be a matter of pushing a couple of buttons to obtain the data.
Telephone Interviews – This could be very time consuming depending on the number of people on the list to call.
Reliability
Company Database – The reliability of this method would need to be questioned. If the company records were continually being updated then the accuracy level would be good. Unfortunately if company records were not kept very accurate, the use of this method should be questioned.
Telephone Interviews – This would be the most reliable method. The customer along with discovering outdated information provided by the company database would give direct responses.
Which Data Collection Method is most Appropriate for this Situation and Why
The data collection method chosen to be most appropriate for this situation is telephone interviews. Although this method would not be as cost effective as the company database, the level of accuracy would be achieved. In any data collection method there will always be strengths and weaknesses.
References
Cooper, D. & Schindler, P., (2003). Business Research Methods (8th ed.). Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.