Data Preparation

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-1

 Questionnaire Checking

A questionnaire returned from the field may be

unacceptable for several reasons.
• Parts of the questionnaire may be incomplete.
• The pattern of responses may indicate that
the respondent did not understand or follow
the instructions.
• The responses show little variance.
• One or more pages are missing.
• The questionnaire is received after the
preestablished cutoff date.
• The questionnaire is answered by someone
who does not qualify for participation.

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-2

 Editing

Treatment of Unsatisfactory Results

• Returning to the Field – The questionnaires
with unsatisfactory responses may be returned
to the field, where the interviewers recontact the
respondents.
• Assigning Missing Values – If returning the
questionnaires to the field is not feasible, the
editor may assign missing values to
unsatisfactory responses.
• Discarding Unsatisfactory Respondents –
In this approach, the respondents with
unsatisfactory responses are simply discarded.

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-3

 Coding

Coding means assigning a code, usually a number, to each

possible response to each question. The code includes an
indication of the column position (field) and data record it will
occupy.

Coding Questions

• Fixed field codes, which mean that the number of records

for each respondent is the same and the same data appear in
the same column(s) for all respondents, are highly desirable.
• If possible, standard codes should be used for missing data.
Coding of structured questions is relatively simple, since the
response options are predetermined.
• In questions that permit a large number of responses, each
possible response option should be assigned a separate
column.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-4
 Coding

Guidelines for Coding Unstructured Questions:

• Category codes should be mutually exclusive and

collectively exhaustive.

• Only a few (10% or less) of the responses should

fall into the “other” category.

• Category codes should be assigned for critical

issues even if no one has mentioned them.

• Data should be coded to retain as much detail as

possible.

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-5

 Codebook

A codebook contains coding instructions and

the necessary information about variables in the
data set. A codebook generally contains the
following information:
• column number
• record number
• variable number
• variable name
• question number
• instructions for coding
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 Coding Questionnaires

• The respondent code and the record number

appear on each record in the data.

• The first record contains the additional codes:

project code, interviewer code, date and time
codes, and validation code.

• It is a good practice to insert blanks between

parts.

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-7

 Restaurant Preference
Table 14.1
ID PREFER. QUALITY QUANTITY VALUE SERVICE INCOME
1 2 2 3 1 3 6
2 6 5 6 5 7 2
3 4 4 3 4 5 3
4 1 2 1 1 2 5
5 7 6 6 5 4 1
6 5 4 4 5 4 3
7 2 2 3 2 3 5
8 3 3 4 2 3 4
9 7 6 7 6 5 2
10 2 3 2 2 2 5
11 2 3 2 1 3 6
12 6 6 6 6 7 2
13 4 4 3 3 4 3
14 1 1 3 1 2 4
15 7 7 5 5 4 2
16 5 5 4 5 5 3
17 2 3 1 2 3 4
18 4 4 3 3 3 3
19 7 5 5 7 5 5
20 3 2 2 3 3 3
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-8
 SPSS Variable View of the Data of Table 14.1
Table 14.2

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Fig. 14.2 Codebook Excerpt
Column Variable Variable Question Coding
Number Number Name Number Instructions
1 1 ID 1 to 20 as coded

2 2 Preference 1 Input the number circled.

1=Weak Preference
7=Strong Preference
3 3 Quality 2 Input the number circled.
1=Poor
7=Excellent
4 4 Quantity 3 Input the number circled.
1=Poor
7=Excellent
5 5 Value 4 Input the number circled.
1=Poor
7=Excellent
6 6 Service 5 Input the number circled.
1=Poor
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-10
7=Excellent
Fig. 14.2 Codebook Excerpt (Cont.)
Column Variable Variable Question Coding
Number Number Name Number Instructions
7 7 Income 6 Input the number circled.
1 = Less than $20,000
2 = $20,000 to 34,999
3 = $35,000 to 49,999
4 = $50,000 to 74,999
5 = $75,000 to 99,999
6 = $100,00 or more

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-11

 Example of Questionnaire Coding

Fig. 14.3 Finally, in this part of the questionnaire we would like to ask you some background information for
classification purposes.

PART D Record #7

1. This questionnaire was answered by (29)

1. _____ Primarily the male head of household
2. _____ Primarily the female head of household
3. _____ Jointly by the male and female heads of household

2. Marital Status (30)

1. _____ Married
2. _____ Never Married
3. _____ Divorced/Separated/Widowed

3. What is the total number of family members living at home? _____ (31 - 32)

4. Number of children living at home:

a. Under six years _____ (33)
b. Over six years _____ (34)

5. Number of children not living at home _____ (35)

6. Number of years of formal education which you (and your spouse, if

applicable) have completed. (please circle)

College
High School Undergraduate Graduate

a. You 8 or less 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 or more (36-37)

b. Spouse 8 or less 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 or more (37-38)

7. a. Your age: (40-41)

b. Age of spouse (if applicable) (42-43)

8. If employed please indicate your household's occupations by checking the

appropriate category.
44 45
Male Head Female Head
1. Professional and technical
2. Managers and administrators
3. Sales workers
4. Clerical and kindred workers
5. Craftsman/operative /laborers
6. Homemakers
7. Others (please specify)
8. Not applicable

9. Is your place of residence presently owned by household? (46)

1. Owned _____
2. Rented _____

10. How many years have you been residing in the greater Atlanta area?
years. (47-48)

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-12

 Data Transcription

Fig. 14.4
Raw Data

CATI/ Keypunching via Optical Digital Bar Code &

CAPI CRT Terminal Recognition Tech. Other
Technologies
Verification:
Correct
Keypunching
Errors
Computer Other
Disks
Memory Storage

Transcribed Data
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-13
Data Cleaning Consistency Checks

Consistency checks identify data that are out of

range, logically inconsistent, or have extreme
values.

• Computer packages like SPSS, SAS, EXCEL and

MINITAB can be programmed to identify out-of-
range values for each variable and print out
the respondent code, variable code, variable
name, record number, column number, and
out-of-range value.

• Extreme values should be closely examined.

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-14

Data Cleaning Treatment of Missing Responses

• Substitute a Neutral Value – A neutral value,

typically the mean response to the variable, is
substituted for the missing responses.
• Substitute an Imputed Response – The respondents'
pattern of responses to other questions are used to
impute or calculate a suitable response to the missing
questions.
• In casewise deletion, cases, or respondents, with any
missing responses are discarded from the analysis.
• In pairwise deletion, instead of discarding all cases
with any missing values, the researcher uses only the
cases or respondents with complete responses for each
calculation.

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-15

 Statistically Adjusting the Data Weighting

• In weighting, each case or respondent in the

database is assigned a weight to reflect its
importance relative to other cases or
respondents.

• Weighting is most widely used to make the

sample data more representative of a target
population on specific characteristics.

• Yet another use of weighting is to adjust the

sample so that greater importance is attached
to respondents with certain characteristics.

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-16

 Statistically Adjusting the Data

Use of Weighting for Representativeness

Years of Sample Population

Education Percentage Percentage Weight

Elementary School
0 to 7 years 2.49 4.23 1.70
8 years 1.26 2.19 1.74

High School
1 to 3 years 6.39 8.65 1.35
4 years 25.39 29.24 1.15

College
1 to 3 years 22.33 29.42 1.32
4 years 15.02 12.01 0.80
5 to 6 years 14.94 7.36 0.49
7 years or more 12.18 6.90 0.57

Totals 100.00 100.00

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Statistically Adjusting the Data – Variable
Respecification

• Variable respecification involves the

transformation of data to create new variables or
modify existing variables.

• e.g., the researcher may create new variables

that are composites of several other variables.

• Dummy variables are used for respecifying

categorical variables. The general rule is that to
respecify a categorical variable with K categories,
K-1 dummy variables are needed.

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-18

Statistically Adjusting the Data – Variable
Respecification

Product Usage Original Dummy Variable Code

Category Variable
Code X1 X2 X3
Nonusers 1 1 0 0

Light users 2 0 1 0
Medium users 3 0 0 1
Heavy users 4 0 0 0

Note that X1 = 1 for nonusers and 0 for all others. Likewise, X2

= 1 for light users and 0 for all others, and X3 = 1 for medium
users and 0 for all others. In analyzing the data, X1, X2, and X3
are used to represent all user/nonuser groups.

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-19

Statistically Adjusting the Data –
Scale Transformation and Standardization

Scale transformation involves a manipulation of

scale values to ensure comparability with other
scales or otherwise make the data suitable for
analysis.

A more common transformation procedure is

standardization. Standardized scores, Zi, may be
obtained as: Zi = (XX
i- )/sx

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-20

 Selecting a Data Analysis Strategy

Fig. 14.5

Earlier Steps (1, 2, & 3) of the Marketing Research

Process
Known Characteristics of the
Data
Properties of Statistical Techniques

Background and Philosophy of the

Researcher
Data Analysis Strategy

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 14-21

 A Classification of Univariate Techniques

Fig. 14.6
Univariate Techniques

Metric Data Non-numeric Data

One Sample Two or More One Sample Two or More

Samples Samples
* t test * Frequency
* Z test * Chi-Square
* K-S
* Runs
* Binomial
Independent Related
Independent Related
* Two- Group * Paired
test t test * Chi-Square * Sign
* Z test * Mann-Whitney * Wilcoxon
* One-Way * Median * McNemar
ANOVA * K-S * Chi-Square
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. * K-W ANOVA 14-22
A Classification of Multivariate Techniques
Fig. 14.7
Multivariate Techniques

Dependence Interdependen
Technique ce Technique

One Dependent More Than One Variable Interobject

Variable Dependent Interdependenc Similarity
Variable e
* Cross- * Multivariate * Factor * Cluster Analysis
Tabulation Analysis Analysis * Multidimensional
* Analysis of of Variance * Confirmatory Scaling
Variance and * Canonical Factor
Covariance Correlation Analysis
* Multiple * Multiple
Regression Discriminant
* 2-Group Analysis
Discriminant/Lo * Structural Equation
git
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Modeling 14-23

* Conjoint and Path Analysis