Quantitative Methods and Analysis - Essay Example

190). where, Z is the value of the normal distribution table at given confidence level ? is the standard deviation and E is the desired precision For AIU, Confidence level is 95%. Z (Confidence level=95%) = 1.96 ? = $700 E = $55 Thus, it implies that the institute needs to sample 623 individuals to meet the original requirements of the sample. The sample size that is determined has a significant impact on the budget of the research. An increase in the sample size will mean that the institute will have to spend more amount for carrying out the research.

If the budget of AIU is not enough to cover the entire sample of 623, the institute can reduce the sample size or lower down its conditions in confidence level or desired precision. If we see the normal distribution table, we see that the z value deceases with decease in confidence level (Levin & Rubin, 2007). In order to reduce the sample size, one option that AIU is having is to reduce its confidence level. Confidence level is a representation of the surety of the data received. Confidence level can be defined as the likelihood of the true population parameter lying within the range specified by the confidence interval (Stattrek, 2011).

Decreasing the confidence level will lead to decrease of the z value, which will reduce the sample size. . crease the distance from the mean that is permissible for the mean dollars spent by each card holder to $70 at the same confidence level, the sample size becomes: We can see that a slight increase (from 55 to 70) in the marginal error that is acceptable to the researchers lead to a decrease in the required size drastically (from 623 to 385). References Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research Methods in Education, 6th ill. ed. NY: Routledge. Levin, R.I.

, & Rubin, D.S. (2007). Statistics for Management, 7th ed. New Delhi: Dorling Kinderseley (India) Pvt. Ltd. Stattrek. (2011). Confidence Level. [Online]. Available at: http://stattrek.com/Help/Glossary.aspx?Target=Confidence%20level [Last accessed on 20th June 2011]. Wrenn, B., Stevens, R.E., & Loundon, D.L. (2006). Marketing research: text and cases, 2nd ill. ed. New York: The Haworth Press. Part 2 Surveys are very useful tool to collect information about a population. In a research using surveys a questionnaire is administered on a carefully identified sample of respondents (McQuarrie, 2006).

Survey questionnaires are typically aimed at identifying particular respondent’s characteristics, attitudes or perception. Surveys find extensive application in areas such as market research, psychological studies, sociology and human resources. One example of a survey can be a survey in the area of market research, where respondents are asked to respond to their opinion about a particular product or service. Such surveys can be administered through questionnaires written on paper. Another type of survey can be the one used by the HR department of organizations to assess the employee satisfaction levels.

These surveys can be administered as web-based surveys. Telephonic surveys can be administered to analyze the