INTRODUCTION OF PRIMARY DATA

This project sets out to explain what primary data are, to examine the main
approaches that are used to collect primary data and to discuss the nature of the
data collected through the use of each approach. The aim of all of this is to
provide you with a basic understanding of the methods and techniques that are
available for you to use when you wish to collect particular types of primary data.

DEFINITIONS
Primary research is research that produces data that are only obtainable directly
from an original source. In certain types of primary research, the researcher has
direct contact with the original source of the data.
Primary data are data that were previously unknown and which have been
obtained directly by the researcher for a particular research project.
Primary information is primary data to which meaning has been added; in other
words, the data have been analyzed, inferences have been drawn from them and,
thereby, meaning has been added.

NEED FOR PRIMARY INFORMATION

The decision to collect primary data for your research project is influenced by the
kind of research you are carrying out. The need for primary information is far
more frequently related to the practical, rather than the academic aspects of study.
For example, part-time students on professional courses are required to carry out
investigative assignment and project work that is related to real organizations,
usually their own sponsoring organizations. Primary data is less frequently needed
for essays, which, by their nature, are traditional features of degree courses. A
third-year dissertation or a thesis for a higher degree such as an MBA, however,
very often includes primary information.
You carry out primary research when the data you need is not available from
published sources. For example, if you are carrying out an assignment, a major
project or a degree dissertation, you may need information that is only available
from key individuals, such as managers, a group of employees in an organization,
customers or other members of the public. Conversely, you may need to know
how groups and individuals react to particular situations and ideas, or how they
behave when they are carrying out their jobs.

THREE PRIMARY METHODS

There are three main methods you can use to collect primary data, and the
method/s that you decide upon are determined by the type/s of data you need. The
methods are:
The survey method
The interview method
The observational method.
In a sense, the interview method is also a survey, but the word survey has become
most frequently associated with questionnaires, so that when someone says Im
carrying out a survey, it is generally assumed that there is a questionnaire
involved. The objectives when carrying out interviews are more or less the same
as those when using questionnaires. However, the techniques used are different
for each of the two approaches, so we will refer to them as questionnaire and
interview techniques.
Unlike questionnaires or interviews, the observational method does not put
questions to respondents; it collects data about behaviour. The researcher observes
and records behaviour that is relevant to his or her research.

I.

SURVEY METHOD

Both are popular means of gathering data and can reach a large number of people,
but they need to be designed and reedited repeatedly to make them acceptable to
people. You can either print out copies to hand them out to people or send them to
your respondents through email. Though this method is relatively cheap to
conduct and requires no prior arrangements, surveys and questionnaires have the
risk of low response rates and some may turn out to be incomplete.

MAIL SURVEY: The mail survey method is another method for generating the
primary data needed to successfully complete the research project. This method
assumes that the respondent can read, write and answer open ended questions or
check the appropriate box or answer when the questionnaire is highly structured
and contains closed ended and multiple choice questions. The questionnaire used
in the mail survey is known as self-administered questionnaire because they
potential respondent reads the questions and answers them. Mail questionnaire
should be simple as possible because most of the Indian Population is illiterate.

To select the potential respondents for the questionnaire, the researcher

should prepare or buy a mailing list- which serves as the sampling frame.
Researchers can develop mailing list by selecting addresses from a local
telephone directory and zip code directory. The cover letter explaining to
the potential respondent the purpose of study and soliciting his
cooperation in providing the needed information accompanies the
questionnaire.

The mail survey method will reach potential respondents dispersed

geographically effectively and economically. The mail survey also may
be the only way a researcher can contact physicians, executives, and other
busy professionals. The rate of return of first mailing usually is low. A
researcher normally waits about six to eight weeks for the return of
completed questionnaires. Studies on rate of return have shown that about
90 percent of all returns will come within two weeks after survey
instruments are mailed.

The low response rate to the mail survey can be increased substantially
with certain techniques. The techniques are:
i.

Providing advance information to the potential respondents:

Advance information can be provided to potential respondents in several
ways, i.e. giving telephone call to the respondents informing them that
they will soon receive questionnaire by mail. They have to corporate by
completing the questionnaire and mailing it back earliest at their
convenience on the self addressed envelope enclosed with the
questionnaire.

ii.

Offering Incentives:
Incentives, money, tie-tags, stamps, for, collection, and other incentives
have been used to induce potential respondents to complete and return
mail questionnaires. Studies have shown that such incentives result in a
substantial increase in the response rate. In selecting an item as an
inducement for response, four factors should be remembered.
a)

Should increase the rate of response,

b)

Should increase the response rate without introducing respondent

bias,
c)

Must not be too expensive, and

d)

Should be easy and inexpensive to mail.

Of several possible incentives, money seems to be the mot common,
effective inducement for increasing the response rate.

iii.

Using follow-up mailings:

The purpose of follow up mailings is to reduce the number of individuals

who do not respond to a mail survey and thus, to make the sample more
representative. High percentage of completed questionnaires are received
after the first mailing, a follow up mailing often will help the researcher or
a firm to get more returns. The technique is used to induce higher rate of
return. Subsequent mailings that are second mailings are worthwhile, and
third ones usually are sent.
The potential respondents to whom questionnaires are mailed can be
classified into three main categories:
a)

Those who eagerly answer everything they received by mail.

b) Those not too eager to answer questionnaires, but who can be induced
to answer by appealing to them with a reminder, and
c) Those who do not want to be bothered by an interviewer or a mail
survey and do not care to answer.
Follow up mailings are needed to get completed questionnaires from
potential respondents belonging to second criteria. It is practice to send a
reminder postcard during the first week following the first mailing. The
post card is sent to all the respondents in the sample to which the
questionnaire was mailed. If the researcher cannot identify the respondents
in the sample to which the questionnaire was mailed. If the researcher
cannot identify the respondents who have returned the questionnaire, the
second mailing should be confined only to those who have not returned
completed questionnaires. The second mailing should be sent a few weeks
later after the initial mailing, preferably three to four weeks. Such a
follow-up mailing gives the researcher a better chance of reaching people
who have been out of town or who have been particularly busy.

II.

INTERVIEWS
There are three different ways to conduct interviews, and they are:

Face-to-face interviews can be conducted by having question and answer

sessions with one or more people. Ask people on the streets, go door-todoor to gather information, or make an appointment with an expert.

Web-based interviews, on the other hand, make use of the internet to

gather information so you will not have to the field for it. This latter
method is also less costly and more convenient to use.

Telephone interviews are very much similar to face-to-face interviews, but

they are shorter in comparison and more structured. You may also have to
send a letter to inform the interviewee in advance so they would expect
your call.

1) PERSONAL INTERVIEW: In personal interview method the

researcher asks each potential respondent specific question and records
the responses. This method has the advantage of providing the greatest
degree of control over the questions and responses to the interviewing
process. The successful collection of data by a personal interview
depends to a great degree of attitude and behavior of the interviewer.
There are two persons involved Interviewer and Interviewee or
Respondent. Interviewer is a person who takes the interview and
Interviewee is the person who gives response or answers to the questions

asked

by

the

interviewee.

This

method

involves

face-to-face

communication, with the help of questionnaire.

Guidelines, which helps researcher in collecting meaningful and

worthwhile information.
i.

Make an appointment for the interview,

ii.

Avoid the presence of third party,

iii.

Keep the interview on track,

iv.

Let the respondent do the talking.

The interviewer should also use electronic devices such as tape recorders
whenever possible. Recording an interview with the permission of the
respondent adds another dimension to data collection. In addition to
providing an exact record of the questions and answers, tape recorders
reveal the pauses, inflections of the voice, and so on, which cannot be
noted in paper. Visual aids such as photographs can be shown to the
respondents during a personal interview to assist in getting precise
answers.
Advantages of Personal Interview Method:
i.

Few potential respondents will refuse to cooperate with a qualified and

experienced interviewer.

ii.

An interviewer is trained to ask questions in a specific order.

iii.

An interviewer can explain questions to the respondent(s), if desired or

needed.
Disadvantages of Personal Interview:

i.

Improperly conducted interviews can seriously affect the quality of

information obtained.

ii.

An interviewer, however well qualified and experienced, cannot

question those who are not at home.

iii.

In an area of low population density, the cost of interviewing

individual households will be high.
The advantage of personal interviewing overweighs the disadvantages. As a
result, a researcher waiting to collect primary data will rely on personal interview
method provided he has sufficient and qualified and experienced supervisory
personnel and interviews. Although the cost of generating primary data by this
method is high, the quality of information obtained normally will be better than
that obtained using any other method.
2) TELEPHONE INTERVIEW: Contacting potential respondents by
telephone are another technique that can be used for generating primary
data. This method helps to contact large number of individuals or
households can be contacted in a relatively short time. The prime time
for such calls is 7 p.m to 10 p.m, when a large no of potential respondents
are at home. Information can be obtained rapidly from several hundred
households can be contacted quickly results in a lower cost per telephone
interview completed as compared with the personal interviewing method
of data collection.
Advantages of Telephone Interview:

i.

The interviewer is in contact with respondent, and the respondent feels

a personal involvement in answering questions,

ii.

As the respondent answers only one question at a time, he is not biased

by subsequent questions,

iii.

Because questions can be asked in rapid succession, responses can be

obtained faster,

iv.

No field work is involved,

Disadvantages of Telephone Interview:

i.

The relatively short questionnaire which must be used, limits the

amount of data which can be gathered,

ii.

Only those households that have telephones can be called,

iii.

It is rather difficult to establish rapport between the interviewer and the

respondent,
The advantage in cost and time outweigh the disadvantages. It is not usual for one
interviewer to make between 10 to 15 calls per hour. This means that 80 and 120
telephone interviews could be completed in an eight- hour day. Because many
interviews can be completed in a relatively short time and the cost of completed
interview is lower than in other methods, telephone interviews are used to
generate primary data. The telephone interviewing method to measure the
effectiveness of television commercials.

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3) GROUP INTERVIEW: The group interview is also called as focused

group interview, can be defined as a method of collecting primary data in
which number of individuals have common interest interact with each
other. The group members must have a common interest and it should be
relevant to the topic under discussion. Group interview is used by
marketing researchers, with the objective to gain insight into the behavior
and thinking of the group members. This method yields a variety of
conclusions and actions.
The group interview technique has innumerable uses in the development
and marketing of many products and product lines. This method involves
interviewing by two or more individuals at the same time. Free discussion
is encouraged among group members and the interviewer. As it is flexible
it can be adapted to meet the needs of any project. Eg Group interview
can be a vehicle for introducing a new product. The size of the group
involved in each discussion period is important.
Experience has shown that the most workable size group includes about
six to eight individuals. Groups smaller than that tend not to be selfgenerating, for each respondent feels that he is responsible for the success
of the entire discussion. Groups larger than that are rather difficult to
handle.
Advantages of Group Interviews
i.

Respondents comment freely and in detail,

ii.

Flexibility,

iii.

Visual aids can be used,

.Disadvantages of Group Interviews

i.

The difficulty of getting a representative sample,

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ii.

The possibility of the group being dominated by one individual,

and

iii.

Respondents may answer to please the interviewer or because

others in the group are answering.

III.

OBSERVATION
Observation is one of the simplest methods for primary data research
and would not cost much. All you have to do is simply take note of the
behavior of people towards your company's products and services. You
can also try to observe how your competitors behave, and how they
provide their products and services. Make sure that you are not alone
in observing and have a number of colleagues to do the same thing so
you can differentiate between fact and opinion. Collecting primary
data maybe difficult and may take a long time to finish, but the end
result is that you have the necessary information you can use to make
improvements to your company's products and services.

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Advantages of observation method:

i.

The researcher or observer gets first hand information he observes,

ii.

Data is collected under normal behavioral situations with little or

no involvement with the individual being observed,

iii.

Observation of the behavior and recording what the observer

Disadvantages of observation method:

i.

When a consumer becomes aware that he is being observed, this

awareness can result in unnatural behavior;

ii.

It is impossible to observe behavioral patterns which occur

sporadically,

iii.

Only overt behavior can be observed.

The observation method can be used to obtain data for meant purpose related to
marketing decisions. Managers of supermarkets and departmental stores get
information about the quality of service, sales effort of salespersons, and
efficiency at the checkout counter and potential shoplifters from concealed
recording devices.

QUESTIONNAIRES
Most people are familiar with questionnaires. We see them being administered for
a variety of reasons in many walks of life. TV companies use them to assess their
programmes and viewing figures; marketing researchers use them to obtain
peoples opinions of their products and services; and psychologists, who are
briefed by the media and political parties, use them to obtain data about trends
and habits in voting.

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Occasionally, however, we receive questionnaires in the workplace asking our

opinions of say, the pension scheme, or the organizations policies on health and
safety, pay, holiday entitlement or promotion. The purposes of surveys that are
carried out in organizations usually set out to:
Identify employees attitudes towards something
Elicit employees opinions of something
Obtain data about employees characteristics
Ask employees about their behaviour
Obtain information about their perceptions of something in particular, such as the
cause of a continuing problem.
At first glance, some of these purposes may seem similar, but there are subtle
differences which, if ignored, could affect the quality of the data you ultimately
collect. An opinion, for example, is an unproven belief or judgement about
something such as the effects of mobile telephone masts on peoples health,
whereas an attitude may be a disposition to act for or against something or a
predisposition to respond consistently in a positive or negative way to some
person, object or situation.

An attitude, however, is not actual behaviour, but attitudes do cause people to

behave in the way they do. Individual perception is a mental process. It is the
process that gives us the ability to make sense of things in the world around us.
Truly, these words are used conversationally and different meanings are attributed
to them.
In scientific terms, however, the true, non-colloquial differences are of paramount
importance when we come to construct the question items for a questionnaire or
for a series of interviews, since it is the precise wording of the questions that
14

determines the relevance and types of responses we obtain. This brings us back to
considering the kind of data we wish to collect. Do you, for example, want
peoples opinions of some event, object, policy or idea? Or do you want to elicit
their attitudes towards it? If you consider the meanings of these words as they are
stated above, you should be able to see how they influence the way you formulate
your questions.

ADVANTAGES OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE

1. The questionnaire is easy to construct.
2. Distribution is easy and inexpensive.
3. Tabulation of responses is easy.
4. The respondents replies are of his own.
5. Confidential information may be given freely.
6. Respondents can fill out the questionnaire at their own convenience.
7. More accurate replies may be given.
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DISADVANTAGES OF A QUESTIONNAIRE
1. The questionnaire cannot be used with illiterates.
2. Some or many respondents may not return the questionnaire.
3. A respondent may give wrong information.
4. Respondents may leave some or many items unanswered.
5. Some questions or items may be vague to the respondents.
6. The number of choices may be very limited.

THE QUALITIES OF A GOOD QUESTIONNAIRE

The design of a questionnaire will depend on whether the researcher wishes to
collect exploratory information (i.e. qualitative information for the purposes of
better understanding or the generation of hypotheses on a subject) or quantitative
information (to test specific hypotheses that have previously been generated).

16

Exploratory questionnaires: If the data to be collected is qualitative or is not to

be statistically evaluated, it may be that no formal questionnaire is needed. For
example, in interviewing the female head of the household to find out how
decisions are made within the family when purchasing breakfast foodstuffs, a
formal questionnaire may restrict the discussion and prevent a full exploration of
the woman's views and processes. Instead one might prepare a brief guide, listing
perhaps ten major open-ended questions, with appropriate probes/prompts listed
under each.
Formal standardized questionnaires: If the researcher is looking to test and
quantify hypotheses and the data is to be analyzed statistically, a formal
standardized questionnaire is designed. Such questionnaires are generally
characterized by:
prescribed wording and order of questions, to ensure that each respondent
receives the same stimuli
prescribed definitions or explanations for each question, to ensure interviewers
handle questions consistently and can answer respondents' requests for
clarification if they occur
prescribed response format, to enable rapid completion of the questionnaire
during the interviewing process.
Given the same task and the same hypotheses, six different people will probably
come up with six different questionnaires that differ widely in their choice of
questions, line of questioning, use of open-ended questions and length. There are
no hard-and-fast rules about how to design a questionnaire, but there are a
number of points that can be borne in mind:
1. A well-designed questionnaire should meet the research objectives. This may
seem obvious, but many research surveys omit important aspects due to
inadequate preparatory work, and do not adequately probe particular issues due to
17

poor understanding. To a certain degree some of this is inevitable. Every survey is

bound to leave some questions unanswered and provide a need for further
research but the objective of good questionnaire design is to 'minimize' these
problems.
2. It should obtain the most complete and accurate information possible. The
questionnaire designer needs to ensure that respondents fully understand the
questions and are not likely to refuse to answer, lie to the interviewer or try to
conceal their attitudes. A good questionnaire is organized and worded to
encourage respondents to provide accurate, unbiased and complete information.
3. A well-designed questionnaire should make it easy for respondents to give the
necessary information and for the interviewer to record the answer, and it should
be arranged so that sound analysis and interpretation are possible.
4. It would keep the interview brief and to the point and be so arranged that the
respondent(s) remain interested throughout the interview.

TYPES OF QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Structured questionnaire
a) Have definite and concrete questions.
b) Is prepared well in advance.
c) Initiates a formal inquiry.
d) Supplements and checks the data, previously accumulated.

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e) Used in studies of the economics and the social problems, studies of the
administrative policies and changes etc.
2. Unstructured questionnaire
a) Used at the time of the interview.
b) Acts as the guide for the interviewer.
c) Is very flexible in working.
d) Used in studies related to the group of families or those relating to the
personal experiences, beliefs etc.
A questionnaire can also be divided as the follows depending on the nature of the
questions
1. Open ended questionnaire
a) Respondent is free to express his views and the ideas.
b) Used in making intensive studies of the limited number of the cases.
c) Merely an issue is raised by such a questionnaire.
d) Do not provide any structure for the respondents reply.
e) The questions and their orders are pre determined in the nature.

2. Close ended questionnaire

a) Responses are limited to the stated alternatives.
b) One of the alternatives is simply YES or NO.
c) Respondent cannot express his own judgment.
3. Mixed questionnaire

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a) Questions are both close and open ended.

b) Used in field of social research.
4. Pictorial questionnaire
a) Used very rarely.
b) Pictures are used to promote the interest in answering the questions.
c) Used in studies related to the social attitudes and the pre judices in the
children.

DESIGNING EFFECTIVE QUESTIONNAIRES

The primary purpose of a questionnaire is to help extract data from respondents. It
serves as a standard guide for the interviewers who each need to ask the questions
in exactly the same way. Without this standard, questions would be asked in a
haphazard way at the discretion of the individual. Questionnaires are also an
important part in the data collection methodology. They are the medium on to
which responses are recorded to facilitate data analysis.

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There are five people to take into consideration when designing a questionnaire:
Client the client wants answers to their particular problem and even, on
occasion, to have their worst fears shown up to be unlikely or improbable.
Researcher the researcher needs to uncover information and balance the needs
of three groups of people. She or he needs to ensure that the interviewer can
manage the questionnaire easily, that the questions are interesting for the
respondent and that the questionnaire matches the clients needs.
Interviewer the interviewer wants a questionnaire which is easy to follow and
which can be completed in the time specified by the researcher.
Respondent respondents generally want to enjoy the interview experience.
They need to feel that the questions are phrased so that they can be answered
truthfully, and so that they allow the respondent to actually say what he or she
thinks. They may also want to know if they will receive anything in return for
giving their opinion.
Data-processor the data processor wants a questionnaire which will result in
data which can be processed efficiently and with minimum error.
If questionnaires fail it is usually because they are dashed off with insufficient
thought. Questions may be missed out; they could be badly constructed, too long,
or too complicated and sometimes unintelligible. Good questionnaires are
iterations which begin as a rough draft and, through constant refinement, are
converted to precise and formatted documents.

There are normally five sections in a questionnaire:

The respondents identification data such as their name, address, date of the
interview, name of the interviewer. The questionnaire would also have a unique
number for purposes of entering the data into the computer.
An introduction this is the interviewers request for help. It is normally
scripted and lays out the credentials of the market research company, the purpose
of the study and any aspects of confidentiality.

21

 Instructions the interviewer and the respondent need to know how to move
through the questionnaire such as which questions to skip and where to move to if
certain answers are given.
Information this is the main body of the document and is made up of the
many questions and response codes.
Classification data these questions, sometimes at the front of the
questionnaire, sometimes at the end, establish the important characteristics of the
respondent, particularly related to their demographics.

QUESTIONING TECHNIQUES
The most frequent question I am asked by students who wish to design a
questionnaire is where do I start? I always advise them to start by drafting the
questions. It is the most difficult task in questionnaire design, but how the
questions are asked does determine the rest of the design. One approach to this
task is to brainstorm ideas about the questions that need to be answered and write

22

them down. It is a random process, but the questions you come up with can be
modified and placed in order afterwards. Doing it this way, you will probably
finish up with too many questions, some that you can immediately reject. After
discarding the obvious ones, check the remainder to see if you can improve the
wording with a view to achieving exact and unambiguous meanings. You may still
have too many a large number of questions will reduce your response rate but
you should not discard questions arbitrarily. Again, study each question separately
and carefully to see if it needs to be amended.
When you have developed all of the questions you can, list them in a logical
sequence and carry out a pilot study on a group and people who understand the
subject of your research and your objectives. Show them to your tutor, who might
have some suggestions for further questions or for amending the ones you do
have. Remember that you have been deeply absorbed in the task, and to have
someone look at the questions with an objective eye is usually very useful.
The key principles of effective questionnaire design
There are seven steps in the design of a questionnaire:
Step 1 Decide what information is required
The starting point is for the researcher to refer to the proposal and brief and make
a listing of all the objectives and what information is required in order that they
are achieved.

Step 2 Make a rough listing of the questions

A list is now made of all the questions that could go into the questionnaire.
The aim at this stage is to be as comprehensive as possible in the listing and not to
worry about the phrasing of the questions. That comes next.
Step 3 Refine the question phrasing

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The questions must now be developed close to the point where they make sense
and will generate the right answers. Tips on how to write good questions are
provided later in this chapter.
Step 4 Develop the response format
Every question needs a response. This could be a pre-coded list of answers or it
could be open ended to collect verbatim comments. Consideration of the
responses is just as important as getting the questions right. In fact, considering
the answers will help get the questions right.
Step 5 Put the questions into an appropriate sequence
The ordering of the questions is important as it brings logic and flow to the
interview. Normally the respondent is eased into the task with relatively
straightforward questions while the more difficult or sensitive ones are left until
they are warmed up. Questions on brand awareness are asked first unprompted
and then they are prompted.
Step 6 Finalize the layout of the questionnaire
The questionnaire now needs to be fully formatted with clear instructions to the
interviewer, including a powerful introduction, routings and probes. There needs
to be enough space to write in answers and the responses codes need to be well
separated from each other so there is no danger of circling the wrong one.

Step 7 Pretest and revise

The final step is to test the questionnaire. It usually isnt necessary to carry out
more than 10 to 20 interviews in a pilot because the aim is to make sure that it
works, and not to obtain pilot results. In theory the questionnaire should be
piloted using the interviewing method that will be used in the field. Time and
money can preclude a proper pilot so at the very least it should be tested on one or
24

two colleagues for sense, flow and clarity of instructions. The whole purpose of
the test is to find out if changes are needed so that final revisions can be made.

10 Things to think for effective questionnaire design

1. Think about the objectives of the survey: at the outset, the researcher
should sit down with the research plan (the statement of what is to be
achieved and the methods which will be involved) and list the objectives
of the study. This will ensure that the survey covers all the necessary
points and it will generate a rough topic list which will eventually be
converted into more explicit questions.
2. Think about how the interview will be carried out: the way that the
interview will be carried out will have a bearing on the framing of the
questions. For example, interviews carried out over the telephone have
some limitations compared with face to face interviews. Self-completion
questionnaires need to be very precise and explicit in the way they are
designed.
3.

Think about the introduction to the questionnaire: scripted

introductions can sound wooden. However, each interviewer should say
the same thing so there has to be a standard introduction. It should quickly
and succinctly communicate the purpose of the survey, any aspects of
confidentiality and what is required of the respondent. The introduction is
arguably one of the most important components of a questionnaire because
if it fails to engage with the respondent, there will be no interview at all.

4. Think about the formatting: the questionnaire should be clear and easy
to read. It should be easy for the interviewer to navigate around. Questions
and response options should be laid out in a standard format and if the
questionnaire is to be administered on a doorstep in winter, the typeface
should be large enough to read. Where appropriate, there should be ample
space to write in open ended comments. There should be somewhere

25

(front or back) to write down the details of the respondent, the date of the
interview and the name of the interviewer.
5. Think about questions from the respondents point of view: questions
should be framed in a respondent friendly manner. Researchers usually
know what they want from a survey but this seldom converts into a
straight question. The question usually has to be broken down into two or
three parts to make it relevant from the respondents point of view.
Furthermore, researchers can be greedy for information and design
questionnaires that are too long and impose impossible tasks for the
respondent.
6. Think about the possible answers at the same time as thinking about
the questions: the whole purpose of a question is to derive answers and so
it is essential that some thought is given to all the possible replies that
could be received. It is the anticipation of the complete range of possible
answers that throws up the faults in the question. For example, it is no
good asking people how many loaves of bread they buy in a year if they
think in terms of loaves purchased per week
7. Think about the order of the questions: the questions should flow easily
from one to another and be grouped into topics in a logical sequence.
8. Think about the types of questions: texture in the interview can be
achieved by incorporating different styles of questions. The researcher can
choose from open ended questions, closed questions and scales.
9. Think about how the data will be processed: the questionnaire is simply
the vehicle by which data is collected from many individuals before being
stirred in the analysis pot. Consideration of how the data will be analyzed
at the time of designing the questionnaire will make things easier later on.
10. Think about interviewer instructions: questionnaires are administered
by interviewers who, skilled as they are, need clear guidance what to do at

26

every stage of the interview. These instructions need to be differentiated

from the text either by capital letters, emboldened or underlined type.

PILOTING THE QUESTIONNAIRE

It is good practice to pilot or pre-test your questionnaire with a small sample of
respondents before use. The pilot should check peoples understanding and ability
to answer the questions, highlight areas of confusion and look for any routing
errors, as well as providing an estimate of the average time each questionnaire
will take to complete. Any amendments highlighted by the pilot should be made
to the questionnaire before issuing a final version.

Carry Out the Main questionnaire

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Identify Respondents and Keep Track of Status

Computer databases are available that enable you to pinpoint particular types of
organizations and individuals. Sometimes it is worthwhile to pay a list-broker to
provide a specific list (sampling frame). A simple database is useful to keep track
of when questionnaires were sent out and to whom. This can be updated with
details of follow-up contact and dates of reminders.
Number Each Questionnaire
Each individual questionnaire must be uniquely identified by you, preferably
before it is distributed or, to preserve anonymity, afterwards. This identification
could be via a number, or letters and numbers, e.g. if you want to use area codes
as part of an identifier. This code should be transferred to all the computer records
that will be produced from your questionnaire. The unique code enables you to
match computer records with completed questionnaire form and thus allows you
to check queries back to individuals.

Deliver the Questionnaire

Here you follow through on the decisions made earlier about how the
questionnaires should be administered and who the recipient should be. Deadlines
for distribution should have been decided earlier with allowances for sending out
reminders or carrying out follow up calls.
Analyze the Data
A precursor to analysis is the coding, entry and checking of data. Some comments
were made earlier about the statistical analysis packages that are available (e.g.
SAS, Minitab and SPSS). In all instances data can either be entered direct or
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imported from other packages such as Excel, provided the instructions for the
receiving package are adhered to. In all cases a similar approach is used for
coding and formatting data.
Usually the data is help on the computer in a rectangular data table where each
row represents a case, i.e. a specific respondent and their data. Each column
represents a specific variable, i.e. the data for that variable for all respondents.
Note that a question on the questionnaire may require more than one variable to
specify the data collected by that question.
A variable will have a unique title and a specific level of measurement. The
measurement level of a variable is important because it determines the type of
analysis that can be undertaken.
Putting these data entry codes on the distributed questionnaire can help at data
entry time, but obviously has the downside of putting numbers on the
questionnaire that are of no relevance to the respondent and therefore could make
the questionnaire look messier than it needs to.
Analysis packages usually make arrangements for missing values to be coded
automatically; if they do not, this will have to be specifically taken care of when
entering data.

CONCLUSION
This chapter has elaborated a number of basic principles that should guide the
design and administration of structured interview schedules, self-completed
questionnaires and structured observation schedules. First, we discussed the
importance of preliminary conceptual work and expressing the aims and
objectives of your study so that good conceptindicator links could be established.
The chapter also summarized the advantages and disadvantages of different kinds
of self-completed questionnaires and interviews.

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The chapter then turned to the design of questions and questionnaires,

emphasizing the importance of good layout, design and question order, as well as
other factors that influence response rates. Different levels of measurement and
different response formats for questions were described and illustrated. The
chapter then discussed the piloting, or testing, of questionnaires and interview
schedules in order to develop them. Familiarity with these topics should equip
you to design and carry out a study involving one of these instruments with a high
degree of competence.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
WEBSITES
1. www.surveymonkey.com/mp/online-questionnaires
2. www.nepjol.info
3. www.quickmba.com
REFERENCE BOOKS
1. JANKOWICZ, A. D. (1995) Business Research Projects, 2nd edn.
London: Chapman and Hall.

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2. JANKOWICZ, A. D. (2000) Business Research Projects, 3rd edn. London:

Chapman and Hall.
3. KAHN, R. and CANNELL, C. (1957) The Dynamics of Interviewing.
Chichester: Wiley.

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