Primary Versus Secondary Research
within one’s control and can be planned out. Secondary research depends on
trusting data that was already collected. There are mountains of data that have
been collected but never analyzed to the fullest extent. Some could be a simple
database of employees, students or customers, while others could be survey data
collected by a researcher.
If you had access to secondary data, what questions would
you want to answer BEFORE using that data for research? Please give a specific
example.
2. Suppose you conducted a cola taste test. Each participant
in the experiment first tasted 2 ounces of Coca-Cola, then 2 ounces of Pepsi
and finally 2 ounces of RC Cola. A rating of the cola’s flavor was made after
each taste using a 10-point scale.
What are the potential problems with this experimental
design and the procedures used? How might you do the test differently?





