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Secondary Methods: Information Gathering

Information gathering involves collecting data from various sources to answer research questions and test hypotheses. There are two main categories of information gathering: secondary and primary. Secondary data involves published sources like books and articles, while primary data is collected directly by the researcher through quantitative methods like surveys and qualitative methods like interviews and focus groups. The choice between quantitative or qualitative primary data collection depends on the research area and goals.

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103 views3 pages

Secondary Methods: Information Gathering

Information gathering involves collecting data from various sources to answer research questions and test hypotheses. There are two main categories of information gathering: secondary and primary. Secondary data involves published sources like books and articles, while primary data is collected directly by the researcher through quantitative methods like surveys and qualitative methods like interviews and focus groups. The choice between quantitative or qualitative primary data collection depends on the research area and goals.

Uploaded by

Anbarsan Cool
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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INFORMATION GATHERING

Information gathering is a process of collecting information from all the relevant sources
to find answers to the research problem, test the hypothesis and evaluate the
outcomes. Information gathering methods can be divided into two categories:
secondary and primary.

Secondary Methods
Secondary data is a type of data that has already been published in books, newspapers,
magazines, journals, online portals etc. There is an abundance of data available in these
sources about your research area in business studies, almost regardless of the nature of
the research area. Therefore, application of appropriate set of criteria to select
secondary data to be used in the study plays an important role in terms of increasing the
levels of research validity and reliability.

These criteria include, but not limited to date of publication, credential of the author,
reliability of the source, quality of discussions, depth of analyses, the extent of
contribution of the text to the development of the research area etc.

Primary Methods
Primary information gathering methods can be divided into two groups: quantitative
and qualitative.

Quantitative methods are based in mathematical calculations in various formats.


Methods of quantitative information gathering and analysis include questionnaires with
closed-ended questions, methods of correlation and regression, mean, mode and
median and others.

Mean, mode and median are popular quantitative research methods used in business,
as well as, engineering and computer sciences.

Methods of correlation and regression can be used in order to analyze the extent and
the nature of relationships between different variables. Correlation analysis is used to
understand the nature of relationships between two individual variables.Regression
analysis is used to test the nature of relationships between a dependent variable and
one or more independent variables.
Quantitative methods are cheaper to apply and they can be applied within shorter
duration of time compared to qualitative methods. Findings of quantitative studies are
usually easy to present, summarize, compare and generalize. Moreover, due to a high
level of standardisation of quantitative methods, it is easy to make comparisons of
findings.

Qualitative methods, on the contrary, do not involve numbers or mathematical


calculations. Qualitative research is closely associated with words, sounds, feeling,
emotions, colours and other elements that are non-quantifiable.

Qualitative data collection methods are exploratory in nature and are mainly concerned
with gaining insights and understanding on underlying reasons and motivations.

Qualitative studies aim to ensure greater level of depth of understanding and qualitative
methods include interviews, questionnaires with open-ended questions, focus groups,
observation, case studies etc.

Personal interviews are a way to get in-depth and comprehensive information. They
involve one person interviewing another person for personal or detailed information.

Focus groups are group discussions conducted with the participation of 7 to 12


people to capture their experiences and views regarding specific issues closely related to
research question(s). Focus groups data collection method is most suitable for types of
studies where multiple perspectives needed to be obtained regarding the same
problem.

Observation, as the name implies, is a way of collecting data through observing.


Observation data collection method is classified as a participatory study, because the
researcher has to immerse themself in the setting where their respondents are, while
taking notes and/or recording.

Survey Method
A survey is a data gathering method that is utilized to collect, analyze and interpret the
views of a group of people from a target population.

The methods used to collect survey data have evolved with the change in technology.
From face-to-face surveys, telephonic surveys to now online and email surveys, the
world of survey data collection has changed with time. Each survey data collection
method has its pros and cons and every researcher has a preference for gathering
accurate information from the target sample.

Qualitative research is the way in which it discovers how people feel about
something very generally and why. It creates a topic to be explored. Quantitative
research then researches that topic further by gathering the opinions and
thoughts of a high amount of other individuals in a manner that is easy to
quantify and build statistics with.

The choice between quantitative or qualitative methods of information gathering


depends on the one’s area and the nature of research.

SOURCE : RESEARCH-METHODOLOGY.NET (AUTHOR-JOHN DUDOSKIY)

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