1. 23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum 2007 1 Business Research Scales and Questionnaire

2. 23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum 2007 2 Overview Scales-types, selection Questionnaires

3. 23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum 2007 3 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 1 2 3 4 5 Most imp Ratio: a:b, used for distances, length, costs –E.g. 0.8:1 meter, 2/3 rd of costs

4. 23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum 2007 4 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

5. 23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum 2007 5 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

6. 23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum 2007 6 Non Comparative Scales +5 +4 +3 +2 +1 -2 -3 -4 -5 Quality Careful --:--:--:--:--:--:--: Careless Least Important 1 2 3 4 5 Very important Worst-------------------------------Best

7. 23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum 2007 7 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

8. 23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum 2007 8 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

9. 23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum 2007 9 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

10. 23/11/2007Asian School of Business, Trivandrum 2007 10 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

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