23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum Business Research Scales and Questionnaire

23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum Overview Scales-types, selection Questionnaires

23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum Scales Nominal: the number is used only as labels, no numerical significance –E.g. Male 1, Female 2 Ordinal: there is meaningful order,‘relative’ –E.g. Rank 1 is better than 2, 3, 4 Interval: commonly used, equidistant scale –E.g. Rate: Least imp Most imp Ratio: a:b, used for distances, length, costs –E.g. 0.8:1 meter, 2/3 rd of costs

23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum Comparative Scales Paired comparison: respondent must select one from two objects, eg. Taste test Rank Order: most popular Constant sum: points given to attributes sums up a number Q-Sort: similar objects piled up, fast

23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum Non Comparative Scales 1.Continuous Rating: rate by placing a mark in a line, easy but unreliable 2.Itemised rating: most popular –Likert: 5 responses, e.g. strongly agree to strongly disagree; easy –Semantic Differential: 7 points between two opposing words ‘cold’ |-|-|-|-|-|-|-| ‘warm’, 1 to 7 or -3 to +3 –Stapel: 10 categories from -5 to +5, no 0, least used

23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum Non Comparative Scales Quality Careful --:--:--:--:--:--:--: Careless Least Important Very important Worst Best

23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum Choosing a Scale Measurement Accuracy: measure is not true value, only observation X O (observed score) = X T (true score) + X S (systematic error) + X R (random error) Reliability: same results on repetition, X R= 0 Validity: differences in scale scores reflect true differences among objects, X R= 0, X S= 0 Generalisability: how far it can be generalised to the universe

23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum Questionnaire Formalised set of questions Part of data collection Three objectives –All information needed must be converted to questions –Must be easy to answer –Error must be minimised

23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum Questionnaire Design Specify information needed-clear target audience Specify interview method- mail, phone Determine content, 1 question or many –Do you think Coke is tasty & refreshing? –Do you think Coke is tasty? Design it to overcome respondent’s unwillingness-use filter questions

23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum Questionnaire Design Choose structure-unstructured (open) or structured (scale, multiple choice) Choose wording-simple, clear, unbiased Determine order-logical flow, easy first Form & layout- spacing, sections, coding Reproduce & pretest

23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum Thank You End of Session