Business Research Reflective Report: Questionnaire Method Evaluation

This reflective report evaluates the questionnaire method used in a business research study. The report discusses the advantages of questionnaires, such as the ability to gather large amounts of information quickly and easily, and the disadvantages, including potential validity issues and respondent understanding challenges. The analysis highlights the study's success, noting that while close-ended questions were readily answered, open-ended questions presented more difficulty. The author reflects on lessons learned, including the importance of considering the respondents' perspectives, step-by-step procedures, and effective communication. Recommendations are made for improving future surveys, such as circulating questionnaires offline and including more open-ended questions. The report concludes by emphasizing the value of hard work and the varied perceptions of different individuals.

Running head: RESEARCH 0
BUSINESS RESEARCH

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Reflective report:
The questionnaire method that has been used by the students in the case is very appropriate as
per the requirements of the research and the type of data collected (Wright, 2005). Questionnaire
is the type of survey method that is circulated amongst the sample so as to be filled by them. The
questionnaire that has been used has mixed questions that are open ended as well as close ended.
Thus, it provides all types of information to the student and the respondent also can convey their
opinions freely by the open ended questions (Sieber, 1973). Some of the disadvantages and
advantages of this method are:
Advantages of questionnaire:
 Large information: it has been analysed that questionnaire I the method that allow the
researchers to have large amount if information in less time from the large number of
respondents.
 Easy: It is the meth that is easy to circulate as well as it is easy to fill by the respondents.
Respondents find it easy to fill the questionnaire as they can write or fill their opinions
very freely (Burns and Bush, 2006).
 Quick results: it is also one of the major advantage of questionnaire that it can give quick
results and the analysis of the results it also very easy because the similar type of
questions are filled by the respondents thus it is easy to quantify as well.
Disadvantages of questionnaire:
 Less validity: It has been analysed that t depends on the mood of the respondent that how
they fill the questionnaire. It can be wrong.
 Understanding: It has also been identified that the questions that has been written I the
questionnaire may not be understood by the respondents and they may fill it without
understanding (Fricker and Schonlau, 2002).
 Different perception different people have their different perception regarding the same
question and thus the accuracy of the results may vary because of the difference in the
perception of the respondents.

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 False information: when the questionnaire is circulated online, it is not necessary that it is
filled by the right candidate who was being targeted for the questionnaire and thus it
affect the accuracy go the result.
As far as the whole research is considered, it has been analysed that procedure is very successful.
There are some shortcomings of the process used but the questions that have been involved in the
questionnaire were very easy to understand by the respondents (Malhotra, Birks, Palmer and
Koenig-Lewis, 2003). It has been analysed at the time of research that the close ended questions
were easily filled by the respondents but the questions that are open ended were not filled so
easily by the respondents. This is because they have to analyse their one perception at that points
and they do not have any options to mark (Kaplowitz, Hadlock and Levine, 2004). This makes
them to put some efforts in thinking about the subject related to the question. Some of the
questions were very easy but the question that was related to the experience of their journey got
negative answers from most of the respondents. This suggest that people remembers the bad
experiences and the not good one. It has been identified that the question that are involves the
questionnaire covers almost all the information required for the research and respondents have
filled the questionnaire in less than 20 minutes which suggests they did not find it difficult to fill
that.
Although the whole administration procedure that has been used in the research was very well
executed but there is still some of the scope of improving the practices and the activities that are
conducted at the time of conducting the survey. The major area where the improvement can be
made is the method of circulating the questionnaire (Kiesler and Sproull, 1986). It is
recommended that the questionnaire should be circulated through the offline means and the
researchers should sit with the respondents at the time when the questionnaire is being filled by
them. This is because this may develop the strength or the accuracy of the answers filled. There
should be some more open ended questions in the questionnaire because it may provide more
chance to the respondents to give their own opinions. More of the close ended questions restrict
the choices of answers to them.

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If the changes need to be made in the questionnaire, it is required to make it before circulating it
to the large audience (Moorman, Zaltman and Deshpande, 1992). This is because it may affect
the accuracy of the results and changing made after circulating may confuse the larger audience
to fill it. It may also results in lack of interest of the respondents to fill the questionnaire. It has
been analysed that the researcher should circulate the questionnaire to the small audience at first.
After analysing their answers, the researchers should make the changes as per the requirements.
This enhances the quality of the questionnaire and the survey as well. This is because the
changes are made at early stage of the research and more efforts are not required by the
researchers. When the researchers have to make the changes after circulating the questionnaire to
the larger respondents, it becomes very difficult to alter the questions because the respondents
may lose interest in filling the questionnaire and thus it will affect the full research.
There are several lessons that I have learned after conducting this survey. This first lesson that I
have learnt is about assuming the behaviour of the people. This is because when the survey needs
the done, it is required to make the questionnaire by putting yourself at the place of the
respondents. This is the best way to design the questionnaire. Have also learned to sort the
things and follow the actions step by step. This I because following the procedure is very
important in conducting the research d designing the questionnaire. It is the first requirement of
the student to jot down the information points that are required to be collected so that the
questions can be made accordingly. Communication is another skill that I have learnt. I have
realised that my communication skills have been polished after thus survey because I have met
with many people and interacted with them regarding their experiences. It was really a great
experience to interact with the strangers and hearing their part on the subject. It has been
analysed by this survey that different people have different perception regarding the same things.
This is because the people who hate a service of a jet company are loved by some other
passenger. This suggests nothing is correct and wring. It is thinking of the people that can make
things right and wrong. One of the other lessons that I have learnt from this research is hard
work. I have realised that conducting a survey is not an easy task. It is required by the
researchers to understand the part of the respondents, look for the particular respondents that can

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give proper answers and quantifying those answers to make a conclusion out of it. All these
activities that are being conducted by the researchers are not that easy. Any variation or
alteration in the process at any of the point may ruin the whole research thus it is recommend to
the researchers that they should conduct the research with small sample first and then should
conduct it at the large level.

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References:
Burns, A.C. and Bush, R.F., 2006. Marketing research. Globalization, 1(7).
Fricker, R.D. and Schonlau, M., 2002. Advantages and disadvantages of Internet research
surveys: Evidence from the literature. Field methods, 14(4), pp.347-367.
Kaplowitz, M.D., Hadlock, T.D. and Levine, R., 2004. A comparison of web and mail survey
response rates. Public opinion quarterly, 68(1), pp.94-101.
Kiesler, S. and Sproull, L.S., 1986. Response effects in the electronic survey. Public Opinion
Quarterly, 50(3), pp.402-413.
Malhotra, N.K., Birks, D.F., Palmer, A. and Koenig-Lewis, N., 2003. Market research: an
applied approach. Journal of marketing management, 27, pp.1208-1213.
Moorman, C., Zaltman, G. and Deshpande, R., 1992. Relationships between providers and users
of market research: The dynamics of trust within and between organizations. Journal of
marketing research, 29(3), p.314.
Sieber, S.D., 1973. The integration of fieldwork and survey methods. American journal of
sociology, 78(6), pp.1335-1359.
Wright, K.B., 2005. Researching Internet‐based populations: Advantages and disadvantages of
online survey research, online questionnaire authoring software packages, and web survey
services. Journal of Computer
‐Mediated Communication, 10(3), pp.00-00.