Inquiring Minds Want to Know Essay

AbstractThis paper defines Penton Medias sample plan and interrogation material body for their study on if their proofreader service cards atomic number 18 still successful in fargonting buyers attentions. in that location be v questions that develop the consume plan and Penton Medias answers to these questions argon described in this paper along with the strengths and weaknesses of their decisions. Their interrogation intent is likewise explained in the eight categories given. Finally, the strengths and weaknesses of their interrogation design are given.Case fitting 2Penton Media has designed a interrogation study to determine if the reader service cards are still a sustainable name of bringing in customers. Penton Media came up with a sample plan in order answer this research plan. Their sampling plan answered five questions and has both strengths and weaknesses. They also formulated a research design, which includes eight categories of options to answer their res earch question. Their research design also includes strengths and weaknesses, and these will be further examined in this paper.Sampling PlanAccording to cooper and Schindler (2014), the sampling plan includes five questions. These questions include (p. 344) What is the tar assume population?What are the parameters of interest?What is the sampling habitus?What is the appropriate sampling method?What size sample is needed? at one time you stomach answered all these questions, you can determine the appropriate sampling design for your study. Penton Media has created their sampling plan from these questions.The target population for Penton Medias study is the battalion who read their business magazines. Their subscribers consist of 1.7 mission people in the US, so they originally tested come forward the sight via phone with a slight selection of subscribers. They then direct out a second introductory survey to 300 subscribers. From the first and second surveys, they constru ed a final survey and mailed it out to 4,000 of their business subscribers. From the total number of surveys sent out, they stock 710 completed surveys.The parameters of interest in this study include the readers who are genuinely buyers for their company. Penton Media only chose to use the surveys from subscribers actually doing purchasing activities, so this would be considered a non-probability based sampling study. According to the case study presented by Cooper and Schindler (2014), The survey sample was constructed using stratified disproportionate random sampling with subscribers considered as belonging to one of 42 cells (seven industry separates by sestet job titles).StrengthsThe strengths with Penton Medias sampling plan include the parameters of interest and sampling frame. Their parameters of interest focus on the group of readers whose job is to buy for their company. Since this group of people in a flash match who they should be targeting, Penton Media is on the ri ght track. Their sampling frame is also precise because it narrowed their list of people to vent out the surveys to people working in the business fields as decision makers.WeaknessesThe weakness of this study is the sample size. Penton Media chose to only send out 4,000 surveys when they actually have 1.7 million readers. This size seems small since only a little over 17% of the surveyors returned the survey. Sample size should be a representation of the whole, and .04% of the population isnt a great representation. search DesignSeveral options are available to researchers when deciding with their research design will be. They include exploratory or formal studies, type of information gathering, extent of defend, break up, time frame, scope, surround, and perception. A researcher should ponder these options before intention their study.Penton Media was deliberate in their choices and based their answers to research design options on their research question. A formal study was designed to provide the answer to directly answer their research question. For data gathering, a communication study was use in the form of a survey. Ex post facto extent of control was used since Penton Media cant change the results and have to report the results they receive. The purpose was chosen as a reporting study as they are compiling data and providing a summary of the survey results. This studys time frame is cross-sectional with a survey being sent out once for the formal results. The topical scope is statistical because it wants to comparing characteristics and draw conclusions. Field conditions were used in this study because there is no change in the surveyors environment. Finally, the participants perceptions are not changed and they are aware of the research being conducted.StrengthsThe strength of this study is in the ex post facto design where Penton Media has to report from the survey results. There is no way that Penton Media can change or modify the results so this makes the research more reliable and dependable. Another strength is that the participants environment and perceptions arent changed or affected. This makes for more honest and trustworthy results.WeaknessesA communication study is great for the research question that Penton Media is trying to answer. However, they could also get more data from their advertisers. Since many companies keep a record of how a customer finds out about their company, it would be worthwhile to also get statistics from them. This would complete the study and bring more results to complete the research question. closePenton Media has made some adept decisions regarding their sampling plan and research design. They have answered the five questions to determine how they should set up their sample and made unafraid decisions on target population, parameters of interest, sampling frame and method. However, they should have chosen a large sample size to represent the population. Penton Media also mad e good choices in their research design. Their choice of a formal, communication, reporting, statistical study with ex post factor design, cross-sectional time frame, field conditions and unchanged perceptions are find out to their success. Sampling plan and research design are key and Penton Media certainly made good decisions for their study.ReferencesCooper, Donald R. and Schindler, Pamela S. Business Research Methods. New York Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2014. Print.