BM0421 BUSINESS RESEARCH ANALYSIS Tutor: Dr. Ian Charity    Words count: 3,218 words PROGRAMME: MSc of Business with Hospitality and Tourism Management P a g e | 2  P a g e | 3  !"#$%%&""'"%(")'%"%$ * ""&&%!+# The questionnaire (survey) is a useful tool for Tyne and Wear University (TWU) to access and justify the success of the safety bus. In order to collect the greatest number of respondents with accurate response, the university need to design and distribute the effective questionnaire. The reason for choosing the questionnaire is caused by several advantages it brings to the business. According to Robson, Pemberton and McGrane (2011), the questionnaire seems to cover a numerous people, so, it increases the sample size. Moreover, the highly targeted of chosen sample is planned and provides the very affordable cost in printing and distributing the questionnaire to chosen respondents. Due to Bryman (2008), the critical factor which leads to the efficiency of the questionnaire is that is gives the respondents time to think and justify their suitable answer due to the absence of the interview bias. The sample size should not very large but not very small because it will bring some limitations to the investigators in term of the results are not cover the aims of the business or too wide to conclude the status of the strategy. Therefore, TWU targets the random sample size is 1000 students in overall of 3500 students. The postal method will support the TWU in saving time and expenditures for distributing the questionnaire in various ways. Together with the advantages, there are also some disadvantages which need to be take in account such as just few people would like to spend time and find interested in filling in the questionnaire delivered to them (Walonick, 2004). This caused the ineffective in the responses of respondents will be low. Moreover, without the explanations from the distributors, it might lead to the misunderstood and made the inaccuracy of the survey (Wilson and McLean, 1994). ,* )'%"%$ " The questionnaire plays a critical role towards the quality of the survey, in term of P a g e | 4 providing an accurate and good quality questionnaire; any single question should be considered and planned before concluding to write down (Brace, 2008). Due to Hague (1993), the questionnaire should be relevant to the research objectives in term of while collecting the data from respondents, it also help to address the business issue. Thus, it is very important to identify what information areas the questionnaire needs to cover. The aim of TWU is to assess the success of the Safety Bus by gathering the information of students through the questionnaire about feeling and experiences of crime. Based on that, the structure of the questionnaire should be designed includes of: background information (gender, age and country of origin); evaluation of respondents towards their feeling in donation, quality of safety bus, and recommendations/ comments/ suggestions on how the programs could be include and improve in the future (Brace, 2008) -* )'%"%$$'&'$"#./(0'% As it had been discussed above that the structure of the questionnaire will be concluded 4 parts: background information (gender, age and country of origin); evaluation of respondents towards their feeling in donation, quality of safety bus, and recommendations/ comments/ suggestions on how the programs could be include and improve in the future. The good structure of questionnaire will demonstrate the ensuring of covering all topics relevant to the research and respondents (Peterson, 2000). As the designer for the questionnaire, it has to be ensure that each question is read and considered by the respondents is easy to understand and avoid the confusing of multiple answers or information (Lewis and Thornill, 2003). Moreover, the business always puts their ambiguous into the questionnaire to assess and reach more information from the respondents to understand their expectations, but, Wilson and McLean (1994) suggest that question must be easy to understand and unambiguous. Furthermore, according Bryman (2008), questions should be organized from dichotomous questions, multiple choice questions to open-ended questions following to the level of difficulty. In addition, the question should be too short or too long in order to motivate and encourage the respondents to read and fulfil the questionnaire with the best answer. Foddy (1994) suggests that the content, grammar and spelling of questions should be considered carefully to reach the study’s objective and show P a g e | 5 the respect to the respondents. 1* )'%"%$2  There are two main types of question are open-ended and closed questions (Robson, Pemberton and McGrane (2011). The various of questionnaire will help the study utilize the potential answering abilities of respondents in term of using mix of question types is important to make the questionnaire more interesting, easier and significantly raise respond. As the dean’s expectation to target a large number of respondents, almost of the question are closed. However, the questionnaire also includes one open question which would be useful get addition comments and explanations. Thus, on the one hand it is easy for the respondent to answer. Besides, quantitative data could be analyzed straightforwardly. On the other hand, the data is still detail and potential (Robson, 2011). Furthermore, the answers are designed using numerical scales. The answers for almost of the closed questions are balanced between positive and negative response. As the intention not to force respondent to choose positively, the option of neutral response is available. In addition, there is also the option to answer “not applicable”. Thus, it would not exclude any possible opinion. The questions for demographic information are design to be multiple choice questions or dichotomous questions where only two answer. These types of question are easy to answer because the ranges of answers are presented. In fact, that simplicity also influences people willingness to response to the questionnaire (Web, 2000). Andrews (2003) discussed that the questionnaires should be ended by open- ended questions because it will allow the respondents to show their expectations or understanding and feelings about the questionnaire. But instead, this type of question is difficult for the analyst to coding, analysing and interpreting data. There should be an open-ended question in the survey of TWU to investigate the perceptions/ expectations or thinking of the respondents. 3* #%4 " Coding plan is the collection of responses and convert these responses into numbers or code. Lewis and Thornill (2003) stated that responses on the survey P a g e | 6 need to be coded before data entered for analysis into the SPSS software. The coding plan helps the researcher to track the respondents who complete the questionnaire Robson, Pemberton and McGrane (2011) claim that an ‘official use’ column should be involved in the right hand side of the questionnaire format. This column supports the researchers to code the responses to each of the questions into the SPSS. 5* %"6%%2(%$'&% The reliability and validity of using this questionnaire is also considered when establishing. Firstly, there are a number of initial considerations are taken into account, particularly the nature of respondents, the type of method being used to survey. Rattray and Jones (2005) asserted that, because among many ranges of scales and responses, choosing one particular one would results different type and level of data. This structure’s association with appropriate coding plan would make the results reliable. 7* ! %&"%( "#""&&% As it had been discussed above that the method of data collection and distribution of this research is postal survey, thus, as Robson et al (2011, p.50), “postal surveys is one of the most accepted, valued and applied methods for collecting survey data in business research”. The reason for choosing this method rather than mail survey is because of postal survey does not require a significant cost but also efficiency in time management by the time between dispatch and return is flexible and comfortable enough for the respondents to spend couples time on it and get it done accurately (Robson, 2011). However, the post survey also finds that the rate of response from the respondents is lower. It is normally around 39.2% as the result of TWU found in the later of this research. Robson et al. (2011) discussed that this low rate can only be enhanced by having a good questionnaire design and short time required to complete. There is also a difficulty in providing response back to the TWU of the respondents. The reason is the limited contact between researcher and respondents. Thus, the questions and answers need to high level of brevity, accuracy and clarity P a g e | 7 (Agrawal, 2009). In general, this questionnaire is designed with the sufficient characteristics as to achieve the objective of ensuring a high response rate and highly reliability. Besides, its questions flow and structure is also appropriate to do the interpretation. Moreover, its accuracy, brevity and clarity could definitely help TWU to achieve survey expectation. P a g e | 8 "$,"""2%"#"'"% * $%/('#86"&94$'#%($!"% Gender Gender Male Female Total Frequency 177 215 392 Percentage 45.2% 54.8% 100% The graph indicates that student’s gender Normal Distribution, which theoretically have a distinctive shape. The table presented that 45.2% of male responded the questionnaire within 392 respondents. That ratio is similar to the proportion of male students at TWU and considered as less than the number of female. Moreover, out – of 1000 delivered questionnaires, TWU received 392 responses, which accumulated 39.2% students participated from in this survey. Hence, the rate of male respondents hardly becomes representative of population who resent their answers to school. P a g e | 9 Descriptives Statistic Std. Error Gender Mean 1.55 .025 95% Confidence Interval for Mean Lower Bound 1.50 Upper Bound 1.60 5% Trimmed Mean 1.55 Median 2.00 Variance .248 Std. Deviation .498 Minimum 1 Maximum 2 Range 1 Interquartile Range 1 Skewness 196 .123 Kurtosis -1.972 .246 This table showed that the skewness accounted for -0.196 and the kurtosis is -1.972 which represent symmetrical shaped. The mean was pointed at 1.55 is different median getting at 2.00 and the standard deviation is 0.498. As a result, the mean of population was arranged in an interval of 1.50 and 1.60. Origin Origin UK EU International Total Frequency 311 29 52 392 Percentage 79.3% 7.4% 13.3% 100% P a g e | 10 The table and diagram showed that from 392 results achieved from students, there are 79.3% respondents from UK, 7.4% of those come from EU and the others are international is calculated at 13.3%. [...]... seen in the table, there is a slightly different between the mean of 2.46 and the median of 2 As the skewness indicates at 0.088 lower than 1, student threatened feelings are justified asymmetric The mean of population is in the range of 2.37 and 2.54 P a g e | 16 1.2 Investigate the relationship between students’ feelings of safety and gender, origin and postcode In the comparison with two interferences,... 18, so the H 0 is accepted at 5% significant level It means there is insufficient evidence to suggest that a difference exists in the amount of usage of the Safe Bus intern of gender 2.5.2 The amount of usage of the Safety bus differ by origin In this case the data relating quantitative, the sample size is greater than 30 so the data can be concluded as normal distribution owing to Cetral Limit Theorem... Grouping Variable: Origin 1.024 2 599 Conclusion: The sig value is 0.599 (table 21) which is greater than 0.05 Thus the H 0 will be accepted at the 5% significant level It can be concluded there is obvious evident of the difference in the amount of the Safety Bus between the three independent group in origin P a g e | 30 2.5.3 Relationship between postcode area and the amount of usage of the Safety Bus. .. as the result in the table above gave the explanation about the differences between the observed and expected account Students who are living in NX4 feel to be the most threatened when they go round the city during the night rather than the others For those who accommodate in NX2 normally feel safe when travelling at night Moreover, most students rarely think that they will be attacked by the criminals... so the H0 will be rejected at 5% significant level It means that there is a significant difference exits between the mean of the TWU expectation and the number of users Moreover, from table 17, the mean of population is 2.96 Therefore, it can be concluded that the TWU reach their expectation 2.5 Investigate the amount of usage of the safety Bus differs according to gender, origin and postcode area In. .. rejected that means there is a significant difference related amount of users and postcode area The result in the discriptive table suggested that the group with the highest number of uses is NX 1, followed by NX2, NX3, NX4, and other, with respective mean the amount of usage of 3.20, 3.04, 2.97, and 1.20 3 Predicting price willing to pay for the Safety Bus Overview of the data regard the donation Donation:... tool for investigation 2.5.1 The amount of usage of the Safety bus differ by gender µ1: Male µ2: Female H0: μ1 = μ2 (there is no significant difference in the amount of usage of the Safe Bus by gender) H1: μ1 ≠ μ2 (there is significant difference in the amount of usage of the Safe Bus by gender) Significant level: 5% Significant level: 5% Using SPSS application Crosstabs gained results Gender Male Female... present the association between the donation (dependant variable y) that student would be willing to pay for a bus with the three continuous quantitative variable (x1=distance-home, x2=distance-public and x3=rent) The scatter diagrams can present the association between two variables at one time (x1 and y; x2 and y; x3 and y; and x4 and y) The intensity of the relationship is indicated by the clustering of. .. utilized to investigate the relationship between student’s feelings of safety to gender, origin and postcode 1.2.1 Investigate the relationship between students’ feelings of safety and gender: The null and alternative hypothesis: H0: No association exists between student gender and safe feelings H1: An association exists between student gender and safe feelings Significant level: 5% SPSS supplied the results... where the long tail moved to significantly on the right of the distribution, which is expressed in figure 7 The mean of 0.889 and the median of 0.7 is quiet similar, which made the distribution P a g e | 26 is not skew much The standard deviation is 0.5675 leads to the mean of population range from 0.883 to 0.946 at 95% confidence interval 2.4 Predict the expectation of the TWU In this case, the TWU . ""&&%!+# The questionnaire (survey) is a useful tool for Tyne and Wear University (TWU) to access and justify the success of the safety bus. In order to collect the greatest number of respondents. in term of the results are not cover the aims of the business or too wide to conclude the status of the strategy. Therefore, TWU targets the random sample size is 1000 students in overall of. the business issue. Thus, it is very important to identify what information areas the questionnaire needs to cover. The aim of TWU is to assess the success of the Safety Bus by gathering the