MRT/BRT201B Week 3 Assignment: Secondary Research Analysis

This document is a comprehensive overview of secondary research within the context of a marketing research course (MRT/BRT201B) at IMM Graduate School. It covers the definition, importance, and process of secondary research, emphasizing its role in developing context, defining problems, and formulating research designs. The document details the secondary research process, including identifying, accessing, assessing, reviewing, and analyzing data. It explores the literature review as a form of secondary research, outlining its purpose and steps. The content also categorizes and explains various sources of secondary data, including internal and external sources such as sales invoices, government statistics, syndicated data, pooled data, and online computer searches. The document provides a structured approach to conducting online searches and emphasizes the importance of evaluating the quality of the information found. The document also provides guidelines for writing a literature review, including the recommended sources and the pitfalls to avoid. It concludes by highlighting the significance of maintaining a detailed log of the research process.

WELCOME TO :
BUSINESS/MARKETING RESEARCH THEORY
(B/MRT201B)
Week 3 (Unit 5)

LEARNING MATERIAL
• Textbook: McGivern, Y. (2013) The Practice of Market Research. 4th ed., UK:
Pearson
• IMM Graduate School eLearn platform: Business Research Theory/ Marketing
Research Theory (BRT/MRT201B) module.
• IMM Graduate Business Research Theory/ Marketing Research Theory
(BRT/MRT201B) student pacer - 2nd semester 2020.
• IMM Graduate School eLibrary platform.

THE STUDENT PACER
Week 1
Study Unit 1 The practice of market research
Study Unit 3 Defining the research problem
Week 2
Study unit 2 Types of research
Week 3
Study unit 5 Secondary research
Week 4
Study unit 4 Writing a research brief
Week 5
Study unit 6 Qualitative research
Week 6 Assignment 1

THE STUDENT PACER
Week 7
Study unit 7 Quantitative research
Week 8
Study unit 8 Sampling
Week 9
Study unit 9 Designing questionnaires
Week 10
Study unit 11 Analysis of data
Study unit 12 Communicating and reviewing research findings
Week 11
Study unit 10 Writing a research proposal
Week 12 Assignment 2
Weeks 13 – 15 Revision
Week 16 Exams

OUTCOMES
UNIT 5- SECONDARY RESEARCH
• Understand the nature of secondary research
• Understand what is meant by secondary research and secondary data analysis
• Demonstrate knowledge of secondary sources
• Develop a strategy for conducting secondary research including use of online
searches
• Evaluate the quality and suitability of secondary sources
• Understand the concepts of data storage and retrieval systems
• Understand what is involved in data integration and why it is useful
Prescribed textbook: Chapter 5.

Secondary Research
• We do not always need to do primary research as sometimes the
information we need already exists
• What is primary research?
• What is secondary research?
• Secondary research
• Is used to develop context and a better understanding of the issues
• Helps define the problem and determine the information needed to answer
the research question or address the problem
• Helps us develop an effective research design
• Helps us analyse and interpret the data we get from primary research more
effectively
MRT/BRT201B– Secondary Research– Unit 5

Why do secondary research? (PG111)
• Box 5.1 in McGivern (2013) summarises the uses and benefits of secondary research, as
shown below.:
• Answers the research problem without the need for primary research.
• Leads to a better understanding of the issues and the wider context of the problem.
• Helps to define the problem.
• Helps in the development and formulation of hypotheses.
• Helps to determine the nature of the evidence, which is required to address the
problem.
• Helps to formulate an effective research design.
• Helps in the design of effective questions.
• Enriches the analysis and interpretation of primary data.
• Sets the findings from primary research into a wider context.
MRT/BRT201B– Secondary Research– Unit 5

Secondary research process (PG 111)
Secondary research is a process that involves the following steps:
MRT/BRT201B– Secondary Research– Unit 5
Using the knowledge created
Learning from them or analysing them
Reviewing them and assessing their quality
Assessing their suitability for your purposes
Gaining access to them
Identifying existing relevant sources of data or information.

Literature Review (PG 112)
• A review of existing literature on a topic is a useful form of secondary research
and an established practice among academic and social researchers.
• Also known as a literature review, it is common to conduct it either as part of the
early stages of a project, or at the analysis and understanding stage of the topic
under investigation.
How to conduct a literature review
• In academic and social research projects a formal literature review is conducted
and often written up as a chapter in the final research report. But what is a
literature review? A literature review is a synopsis and critical assessment of the
relevant literature – data and information that you found in relation to your
research topic.
• In writing a literature review, there are two main pitfalls to avoid: using it to show
that you know “the area”, and presenting it without any critical thinking about
the content.
MRT/BRT201B– Secondary Research– Unit 5

What should the literature review aim to show? (PG 112)
• What is already known about the topic?
• What you have to say about what is known.
• Whether anyone else has conducted the same research.
• Whether anyone has done research that relates to your topic.
• Where your research fits in with what has been done before.
• Why your research is worth conducting in light of what has already been done.
Keep this end result in mind when you tackle your literature search, and go back to
it when you write up the findings.
MRT/BRT201B– Secondary Research– Unit 5
Study Box 5.2 in McGivern (2013) PG112 presents detailed steps that you
need to follow when conducting your literature review.

The following tips should be followed when writing the literature review:
• Ensure that you have at least 4-6 different authors’ views per construct /
objective;
• 60% of the sources must be academic articles that are less than 10 years old;
• It is not acceptable to copy material directly from other sources and to present it
as your own literature review (plagiarism);
• There should be no direct quotes in the entire paper. You are expected to be able
to reword the key points from the literature in your own words, with proper
reference both in the text and the reference list to indicate where you found the
information; and
• Do not discuss each article individually or give long extracts from single sources.
MRT/BRT201B– Secondary Research– Unit 5

Sources of Secondary Data (PG113)
Secondary sources are often classified according to whether they are internal to
the organisation, produced by it, or external.
• Internal sources
• From the company itself
• External sources
• Government departments and agencies (official statistics)
• Trade bodies, commercial research organisations, business publishers, etc.
(unofficial statistics)
• Other: libraries, books, journals, periodicals, bibliographic data bases,
statistical publications, electronic resources and consumer-generated content
MRT/BRT201B– Secondary Research– Unit 5