Running head: TEAM D WEEK SIX BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS PHASE III

Team D Week Six Business Research Methods Phase III Mike Robertson, Landon Pilkey, Bradley Nerad QNT561 June 3, 2013 Dr. Alex Yu

TEAM D WEEK SIX BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS PHASE III

Team D Week Six Business Research Methods Phase III Barnes &Noble Business Research Methods III The largest book retailer in the United States is Barnes & Noble. The executives at Barnes & Noble want to know if the sales of printed media have experience lost of sales since the introduction of electronic media with their customers. The research from the previous weeks and continued analysis, Team D researched Barnes & Noble method of collecting data and performed additional analysis. Upon reviewing the data gathered from surveys, the Team is able to investigate possible questions that can come from the validity and reliability of the questionnaire given to customers at the stores. The Team explores methods to rise above these issues and bring it into the response types. Subsequently, the members of the team are able to categorize the results in order of power. Statistical Analysis The statistical analysis that may provide the most accurate response to a positive result in business may be the conduct of a confidence level, and by ensuring the data falls within the levels of a two tailed test. The statistical analysis of a hypothesis and the many different testings may help determine the best choice answer or solution the address the problem with Barnes and Noble, with the comparison between online and paper sales. The objective that may need to be defined is the reason behind the additional growth in online sales, in comparison to book sales within the local stores. There are many areas to develop a hypothesis with the data implemented into confidence intervals to help identify if a hypothesis is accepted or rejected, or obtaining the data of personal responses from customers on the two product lines. The customers may prefer the book compared to the online storage and download of any book, but some customers may prefer the convenience of access to the downloadable product without

TEAM D WEEK SIX BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS PHASE III

leaving his or home to purchase the reading material. The other key factor for the inclination of online material may be because of the recent growth in technology, and the reduction of paper. Potential Challenges The validity and reliability of the testing of data and customer questionnaires may be the most important factor in determining what potential changes may happen in Barnes and Noble. The testing of the data may remain at a reliable level if the testing may be conducted by the same technology and personal questionnaires, and any deviation of the testing from different resources may skew any potential data. Valid data and testing is important, but the reliability of the information to obtain the data is equally as important. The questionnaires need to be word correctly to get the results that are aligned with the hypothesis. The wording could be misleading or not understood by the customer. This could cause the analysis to be in error because of a poorly worded question or method which it was asked by surveyors. Barnes and Noble may not have too much success if the data implemented was an educated guess, so the information may need to come from an actual source to remain reliable. Outline of Steps There are a few potential challenges Barnes & Noble may face when presenting the questionnaire and gathering the data. The researchers can use a few steps to help minimize the issues before, during and after gathering the data from store customers. First would be to make sure the sample size is large enough so that a few answer will not skew the data. Once the data is gathered, utilize a small number of researchers to analyze the data. Third step would be to have employees who know how to ask the questions to the customers and use their experience to conduct the survey. Finally, conduct a field test of the questionnaire and have researchers present to to analyze the questionnaire for validity and reliability.

TEAM D WEEK SIX BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS PHASE III

General Response Types The authors Cooper and Schindler (2011) mention that the four response types used by researchers are ranking, rating, categorization, and sorting (p. 255). Ranking is the best option for response because the purpose of the questionnaire is to find out the curiosity in spending in electronic media or to keep printed media. The decision was to have a survey population was 100 people at a six Barnes & Noble stores in New York. Out of the sample size of the 100 people only the collection was only 72 participants. The researchers asked the question, Which type of media do you prefer, electronic copies or printed copies? The answer to the main focus question gives Barnes & Noble what they must have in order to make a choice on spending more for electronic technology for printed media or continue to spend money for the printed media of books and magazines. The outcome of the survey shows that 60% of the customers in the survey said they rather have printed media books and magazines over electronic media. The ranking method is easy to see for the researcher to make a choice from the two different options. The results from the survey are in the following chart (Chart 1) displays the results of the data collection.

TEAM D WEEK SIX BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS PHASE III

Chart 1 Survey from the customer results for Barnes & Noble

Number of Completed surveys

50 40 30 20 10 0

Barnes & Noble Electronic or Printed Media Perference

Printed Media Electronic Media

Printed Media

Electronic Media

Survey Answers

Findings of Order of Power The authors Cooper and Schindler (2011) mentioned that the four scales types are listed nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio in increasing order of power (p. 286). The order of power is a scale of measurement and depends on what type of data is in the scale. The Barnes & Noble questionnaire has questions, which have categories that correspond to qualitative data and the order of power is nominal. The nominal scale is data, which is neither measurable and it is not put into order but subject of distinctive categories. The nominal scale category additionally is split further into two groups, which is renaming and categorical. Renaming take place by giving each object a number. Nominal categorizing occurs by assembling objects together and giving each cluster with a number. To further explain, the authors Cooper and Schindler mention the subgroup must be mutually exclusive, and the object cannot belong to more than one group. Mutually exclusive is defined as the means that each possible survey response shall only belong to one category. The Barnes & Noble questionnaire will group the survey of store customers into two groups of; (1) prefers electronic media, and (2) prefers printed media.

TEAM D WEEK SIX BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS PHASE III

The questionnaire of store customers reveal the order of power that 60% of the store customers prefer to read from printed media of books and magazines. The Barnes & Noble Company offers the electronic book called the Nook. However, the primarily sales come from the printed media such as hardback books and magazines. The side note to the primary question of the survey also revealed that most of the customers prefer to visit the stores rather than the ease of online shopping.

Conclusion Corporations like Barnes & Noble can use research process to make intelligent choices to help improve their operations. The results of the questionnaire and the analysis demonstrated the effectiveness of this type of research. The customers surveyed in the stores provided results that showed the customers prefer the printed media to the electronic media. The results of the questionnaire allow Barnes & Noble to comprehend the customers choice at stocking the media version of books and magazines. Barnes & Noble now can optimize their profit margin because of the research that determines customer choice of Barnes & Noble products.

Mike Robertson I provide the lead for this week as well. I loaded the formatted paper with my parts that I stated I would do from the first of the week. I allowed the rest of the team to decide what they would furnish as their items. I also completed the Powerpoint format and loaded my parts in the slides along with the speaker notes for my parts. I requested the team to complete their parts for the paper as well as the slides. I received their part of the paper from one member on Saturday and the other member Monday morning. As of Monday June 3, 10:00 pm MST We are missing

TEAM D WEEK SIX BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS PHASE III

one members part of the powerpoint and the other team member has not added their part for the short paragraph. I decided to submit paper and powerpoint after making additional changes on their part.

TEAM D WEEK SIX BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS PHASE III

References Cooper, D. R., & Schindler, P. S. (2011). Business Research Methods (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Decision Analyst. (2013). Analytical Consulting. Retrieved from http://www.decisionanalyst.com/Services/statistical.dai Explorable. (2013). Validity and Reliability. Retrieved from http://explorable.com/validity-andreliability.com