Deck 11: Collecting Data by Communication

Question 1

Which of the following statements does NOT accurately describe the mail questionnaire?

A) It allows a wide sample to be used.
B) It allows a representative sample to be used.
C) It is a relatively inexpensive means of recruiting respondents.
D) It ensures that the correct person receives and completes the questionnaire.
E) It is more suitable for contacting busy executives than a telephone or personal interview.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The responses, as well as the questions, are standardized in a(n)

A) unstructured-disguised questionnaire.
B) unstructured-undisguised questionnaire.
C) structured-undisguised questionnaire.
D) depth interview.
E) focus group.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following affords the researcher the most sample control with respect to getting cooperation from the respondent?

A) Phone interviews
B) Personal interviews
C) Mail questionnaires
D) Questionnaires published in newspapers
E) Warranty information cards

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The use of disguised communication to gather primary research data can

A) involve active deception.
B) help eliminate response bias.
C) hide the purpose or sponsor of the study.
D) create a more natural environment in which to collect data from individuals.
E) All of the above.

Question 5

The major problem with using the mall intercept method to conduct personal interviews concerns

A) the ability to direct the inquiry to a randomly determined respondent.
B) securing the cooperation of mall merchants.
C) securing the cooperation of the respondent.
D) the noisy, distracting environment in which the interview is conducted.
E) the high cost of the method.

Question 6

Fixed-alternative questions would be inappropriate for securing information about respondents'

A) apartment rental payments.
B) motivations in husband-wife interactions over purchase decisions.
C) age.
D) awareness of current events.
E) income level.

Question 7

Which of the following is FALSE?

A) Mailing lists to serve as the sampling frame for a mail survey may be generated internally by the firm or purchased externally.
B) In recent years, one of the keys to using a mail questionnaire is the ability to direct the questionnaire to a specific individual, not just a position (e.g., Vice President of Marketing).
C) The quality of the mailing list determines the sampling control in a mail study.
D) Mail questionnaires typically provide more sample control than telephone or personal interviews.
E) All of the above are true.

Question 8

The main advantage of the use of structured-disguised questionnaires in marketing research is

A) measures of knowledge always reflect attitudes.
B) ease of administration.
C) they are easy to construct relative to structured-undisguised questionnaires.
D) they are highly reliable.
E) the data obtained is easy to analyze.

Question 9

Questions that give the respondent no indication of the true purpose of the research project are known as

A) disguised questions.
B) confounded questions.
C) structured questions.
D) undisguised questions.
E) unstructured questions.

Question 10

Which of the following statements is NOT true of fixed-alternative questions?

A) Everyone receives the same questions.
B) The questions are open-ended.
C) They are commonly used to collect primary data.
D) Everyone responds by choosing from among the same set of possible answers.
E) All of the above are true.

Question 11

Which of the following is NOT true of a questionnaire with a high degree of structure?

A) They are relatively simple to administer.
B) They are difficult to code.
C) They are associated with greater consistency of answers.
D) There is no probing or follow-up questions.
E) They are easier to analyze.

Question 12

With unstructured-undisguised questionnaires the purpose of the study is

A) open to interpretation.
B) not communicated to the respondents.
C) clear but the responses to the questions are open ended.
D) clear but the responses to the questions are dichotomous.
E) to define the responses that are open-ended.

Question 13

The problem of nonresponse due to refusals to participate is usually

A) lower with personal interviews than with either telephone interviews or mail-administered questionnaires.
B) lower with mail questionnaires than with telephone or personal interviews.
C) lower with telephone interviews than with mail questionnaires or personal interviews.
D) the same no matter what communication method is used.
E) None of the above are true.

Question 14

An environmental research group, using the fixed-alternative format, surveys people about their recycling practices____________________________ in order to determine support for a ban on non-returnable bottles. The group does not reveal itself or its stance on the issue. The format of this questionnaire is best described as

A) structured-disguised.
B) unstructured-disguised.
C) structured-undisguised.
D) unstructured-undisguised.
E) unstructured-open ended.

Question 15

After John purchased his new car, the car dealer sent him a new owner satisfaction survey, which consisted of several statements about his car, which John was to indicate agreement or disagreement with by checking the appropriate boxes. This survey is

A) unstructured-undisguised.
B) structured-disguised.
C) sentence completion.
D) structured-undisguised.
E) word association.

Question 16

A television network sponsors a survey that contains the question, "How often do you watch television?" This question is an example of a

A) low-structured question.
B) disguised question.
C) high-structured question.
D) close-ended question.
E) fixed-alternative response question.

Question 17

Phone book sampling frames are inadequate because of

A) plus-one sampling.
B) people who have recently moved or have unlisted numbers.
C) random-digit dialing.
D) interviewer bias.
E) small sample size.

Question 18

Depth interviews are best classified as an example of the______________method of communication.

A) structured-undisguised
B) unstructured-undisguised
C) unstructured-disguised
D) structured-disguised
E) structured-open ended

Question 19

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of structured-undisguised questions?

A) Simple to administer.
B) Easy to analyze.
C) Unbiased response categories.
D) Very reliable.
E) Easy to tabulate.

Question 20

Which of the following is FALSE?

A) Structured-undisguised questioning produces more reliable results, although this greater reliability may be obtained at the loss of some validity.
B) When replies are limited to fixed answers as in structured-undisguised questionnaires, there is the minimum possibility for the respondent to misunderstand the meaning intended by the interviewer and vice versa.
C) The responses as well as the questions are standardized in a structured-undisguised questionnaire.
D) One shortcoming of the structured-undisguised question is that it often does not allow an expression of strength and feeling.
E) In structured questions the frame of reference is often obvious from the alternatives.

Question 21

Long questionnaires can usually be handled best by

A) telephone interview.
B) mail questionnaire.
C) personal interview.
D) a focus group interview.
E) a depth interview.

Question 22

A day before elections, a local political candidate for mayor made a speech stressing several important points. To find out whether these points impacted the candidate's popularity, he needed to obtain questionnaire data from registered hometown voters. He would be advised to employ

A) focus group interviews.
B) telephone interviews.
C) personal interview surveys.
D) a mail survey.
E) the use of a passive people meter.

Question 23

The question: "What was your reaction to the Budweiser advertisement you saw on television during the Super Bowl?" is an example of which type of question where the respondents are free to answer in their own words rather than being limited to choosing from among a set of alternatives?

A) Open-ended questions.
B) Closed-ended questions.
C) Scaled-response questions.
D) Ad reaction measurement.
E) None of the above.

Question 24

Studies that rely on phone books

A) Under represent households that move from one geographic area to another.
B) Often end up with an inadequate sampling frame.
C) Might encounter a non-coverage area.
D) Do not include wireless numbers.
E) All of the above are true.

Question 25

Which of the following data collection methods provides the greatest degree of anonymity for respondents?

A) Mail surveys
B) Personal interviews
C) Online surveys
D) Telephone interviews
E) Mall intercepts

Question 26

John was stopped at the local shopping centers and asked if he would be willing to participate in a research study. Since John was alone and mainly doing window-shopping, he agreed to participate. John was taken to a room and shown four new advertisements and asked various questions related to the ads. This type of technique is called?

A) Person-on-the-street interview
B) Mall-intercept interview
C) Drop-off survey
D) Ad recall interview
E) None of the above.

Question 27

Jane Doe wants to administer a short survey on "student driving habits" to a representative sample of students at the local university. She secured a list of students from the student directory. She assigned each student a unique____________________________ number and then used a random number table to select her sample. The student directory from which Jane selected her sample of students to contact is referred to as

A) sampling frame.
B) sampling control.
C) sampling error.
D) sampling directory.
E) None of the above.

Question 28

Which method of obtaining a response is best for questions that may need explaining or when respondents need to explain their answers?

A) Inbound surveys
B) Mail surveys
C) Personal interviews
D) Online surveys
E) All of the above statements are true.

Question 29

Which of the following is problematic when conducting telephone interviews in the U.S.?

A) Caller ID
B) Answering machines/Voicemail
C) Do not call list
D) Unlisted numbers
E) All of these are problematic.

Question 30

Which of the following data collection methods is most versatile?

A) Personal interviews
B) E-mail surveys
C) Fax surveys
D) Mail surveys
E) Phone interviews

Question 31

Methods of questionnaire administration rank as follows in terms of time required to collect the data (quickest to slowest):

A) Personal interviews, web-based surveys, telephone surveys, mail surveys.
B) Web-based surveys, telephone surveys, personal interviews, mail surveys.
C) Web-based surveys, mail surveys, telephone surveys, personal interviews.
D) Mail surveys, personal interviews, telephone surveys, web-based surveys.
E) None of the above, since all methods take about the same amount of time.

Question 32

Which of the following methods provides descriptive primary data the fastest?

A) Personal interview
B) Online survey
C) Mail questionnaire
D) Inbound survey
E) Telephone survey

Question 33

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of computer-assisted interviewing?

A) Ease of data tabulation
B) Explanation of complex questions
C) Enhanced response rates
D) Personalization of questions
E) Customized questionnaires

Question 34

You must conduct research to find out a great deal of information about potential customers. You need a minimum of 300 people and you know that you don't have a lot of money to conduct the research, so you will use

A) in-office personal interviews.
B) in-home personal interviews.
C) focus group interviews.
D) mail questionnaire.
E) observation research.

Question 35

Which of the following data collection methods is best for including pictures and/or graphics with the survey, while minimizing interviewer bias in the way questions are asked?

A) Telephone interviewing
B) Direct mail questionnaires
C) Computer-aided interviewing
D) Online surveys
E) Mall intercepts

Question 36

Which of the following is FALSE?

A) Telephone interviews typically allow a study to be completed more quickly than personal interviews.
B) Personal interviews and telephone interviews can produce interviewer bias.
C) Sequence bias is a more acute problem with personal and telephone interviews than with mail questionnaires.
D) The problems of interviewer bias in a telephone survey are more easily solved than in a personal interview.
E) All of the above are true.

Question 37

A(n)______________might be the only method of obtaining a response from certain busy individuals for whom time is a scarce commodity.

A) personal interview
B) telephone interview
C) mail questionnaire
D) mall-intercept interview
E) None of the above.

Question 38

Which of the following is an accurate statement with regard to personal interviews?

A) In general they tend to be the least expensive per completed contact.
B) As the number of interviewers increases, so do problems of interviewer-related variations in responses.
C) It takes as long to get replies from a small sample as from a large sample.
D) Interviewer-induced bias is minimal.
E) They are less costly than telephone interviews.

Question 39

Which of the following data collection methods is most costly?

A) E-mail surveys
B) Mall interviews
C) Phone interviews
D) In-home personal interviews
E) Web surveys

Question 40

Which of the following questionnaire administration methods is the LEAST expensive?

A) Personal interviews
B) Email/Web-based surveys
C) Mail surveys
D) Depth interview
E) Telephone surveys

Question 41

A(n)______________question allows respondents to freely reply using their own words without limitations to a fixed set of possible answers.

Question 42

With online surveys, the response rate is a good indicator of the quality of the research effort.

Question 43

Questionnaires where everyone receives the same questions and everyone responds by choosing among the same set of possible answers are using fixed-alternative questions.

Question 44

______________ interviews imply a direct face-to-face conversation between the interviewer and the respondent.

Question 45

______________ control concerns the ability to identify, reach, and receive answers from population members.

Question 46

The location of personal interviews depends on the needs of the research and the convenience of the respondents.

Question 47

Structure refers to how much______________is used with the data collection instrument.

Question 48

Disguise creates a more artificial environment in which to collect data from individuals

Question 49

Low degrees of structure are usually associated with greater reliability, or consistency, of answers obtained.

Question 50

A technique used in studies using telephone interviews, in which the numbers to be called are randomly generated is called _.

Question 51

It is necessary to______________a survey when knowledge of the sponsor or topic is likely to cause respondents to change their answers.

Question 52

Personal interviews offer less sample control than other approaches.

Question 53

______________ are popular for conducting personal interviews among consumers in retail shopping centers.

Question 54

The use of high structure greatly simplifies data coding and analysis.

Question 55

The survey type that makes sense for any business that caters to a unique clientele or that wants to measure service quality or satisfaction while the experience is fresh in the consumer's mind is a(n)

A) mall intercept.
B) telephone survey.
C) inbound survey.
D) email survey.
E) personal interview.

Question 56

Information control refers to resource issues such as the time and monetary costs of different data collection methods.

Question 57

Structure refers to how much variation is used with the data collection instrument.

Question 58

One of the biggest advantages of mail questionnaires is the anonymity offered to the respondent.

Question 59

Mail surveys provide little control in verifying that a response actually came from the intended recipient.

Question 60

Current estimates suggest that about______________million telephone numbers have registered with the National Do-Not- Call (DNC) Registry.

A) 197
B) 94
C) 312
D) 209
E) 138

Question 61

When researchers want to draw a random sample of consumers or households, they often use
, in which geographic areas and/or housing units are randomly selected and people within are approached for personal interview.

Question 62

Compare and contrast the main methods of administering questionnaires.

Question 63

When considering methods for collecting communications______________data, the______________itself will often suggest one approach over the others.

Question 64

Response rates are higher for______________than most other methods.