LITERATURE REVIEW,

SECONDARY RESEARCH

DR. ROHIT SINDHWANI

LEARNING
OUTCOMES

1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of

secondary data
2. Define types of secondary data analysis conducted
by business research managers
3. Identify various internal and proprietary sources of
secondary data
4. Give examples of various external sources of
secondary data
5. Describe the impact of single-source data and
globalization on secondary data research

8-2

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 BUSINESS FACTS ON A
GRAND SCALE
• The use of secondary data
has exploded with the advent
of large-scale electronic
information sources and the
web.
• Nielsen Claritas collects and
integrates business-related
data from difference sources.

8-3

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 SECONDARY DATA RESEARCH
• Secondary Data
• Data gathered and recorded by someone else prior to and for a purpose
other than the current project.

• Advantages • Disadvantages
➢ Available ➢ Uncertain validity
➢ Faster and less expensive ➢ Data not consistent with
than acquiring primary data needs
➢ Requires no access to ➢ Inappropriate units of
subjects measurement
➢ Inexpensive—government ➢ Too old
data is often free
➢ May provide information
8–4
otherwise not accessible
 SECONDARY DATA RESEARCH
(CONT’D)
• Data conversion
• The process of changing the original form of the data to a format suitable to achieve the
research objective
• Also called data transformation
• Cross-checks
• The comparison of data from one source with data from another source to determine the
similarity of independent projects.

8–5
 E VA L U AT I N G S E C O N D A RY D ATA

8–6

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 TYPICAL OBJECTIVES FOR
SECONDARY-DATA RESEARCH
DESIGNS
• Fact Finding
• Identification of consumer behavior for a product category
• Trend Analysis
• Market tracking—the observation and analysis of trends in industry volume
and brand share over time.
• Environmental Scanning
• Information gathering and fact-finding that is designed to detect indications
of environmental changes in their initial stages of development.

8–7
DOES IT MATTER?
• Secondary research
shows that services and
value are most important
to consumers.

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 TYPICAL OBJECTIVES FOR
SECONDARY-DATA RESEARCH
DESIGNS
• Model Building
• Estimating market potential for geographic area
• Forecasting sales
• Analysis of trade areas and sites

8–9
 S E C O N D A RY D ATA F O R C A L C U L AT I N G A N
I N D E X O F R E TA I L S AT U R AT I O N

8–10

©2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 DATA MINING
• Data Mining
• The use of powerful computers to dig through volumes of data to discover patterns about an
organization’s customers and products; applies to many different forms of analysis.
• Neural Network
• A form of artificial intelligence in which a computer is programmed to mimic the way that human
brains process information.

8–11
MINING DATA FROM BLOGS
• Data-mining software,
like Buzz Report, search
millions of blogs looking
for messages related to
particular products and
trends.

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 DATA MINING (CONT’D)
• Market-Basket Analysis
• A form of data mining that analyzes anonymous point-of-sale transaction databases to identify
coinciding purchases or relationships between products purchased and other retail shopping
information.
• Customer Discovery
• Involves mining data to look for patterns identifying who is likely to be a valuable customer.

8–13
 DATABASE MARKETING AND CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

• Database Marketing
• The use of customer relationship management (CRM) databases to
promote one-to-one relationships with customers and create precisely
targeted promotions.
• The practice of maintaining a customer database of:
• Names and addresses
• Past purchases
• Responses to past efforts
• Data from numerous other outside sources

8–14
 SOURCES OF INTERNAL
SECONDARY DATA
• Internal and Proprietary Data
• Accounting information
• Sales information and backorders
• Customer complaints, service records, warranty card returns, and other records.
• Intranets

8–15
 EXTERNAL SECONDARY DATA
SOURCES
• External Data
• Generated or recorded by an entity other than the researcher’s organization.
• Information as a product and its distribution
• Libraries
• Internet
• Vendors
• Producers
• Books and periodicals
• Government
• Media
• Trade associations
8–16 • Commercial sources
 Information
as a Product
and its
Distribution
Channels

8–17

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 COMMERCIAL SOURCES
• Market-share data
• Demographic and census updates
• Consumer attitude and public opinion research
• Consumption and purchase behavior data
• Advertising research

8–18
WHAT’S THAT BUZZING SOUND?

• The Internet is filled with billions of

consumer conversations.
• Buzzmetrics monitors Internet
conversations for firms.

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 SINGLE-SOURCE AND GLOBAL
RESEARCH DATA
• Single-Source Data
• Diverse types of data offered by a single company.
• Usually integrated on the basis of a common variable (i.e., geographic area or store).
• Government Agencies
• Global secondary data
• Typical limitations of secondary data
• Additional pitfalls
 Unavailable in some countries
 Questionable accuracy (political influences)
 Lack of standardized research terminology
• CIA’s World Factbook; National Trade Data Bank

8–20
 AROUND THE WORLD OF
DATA
8-21