Road map to secondary data

1. Road map to secondary data

2. Roadmap to Use Secondary Data

3. Step 1: Identifying the Need of Secondary Data for Research
 As a first step, a researcher must identify the need of using the
secondary data for the research. These are generally used to find the
already available facts about a phenomenon.
 The secondary data sources help in developing a theoretical model,
which ultimately should be tested statistically.
 To develop a model, a researcher has to specify the relationship
between two or more variables and the secondary data support in
specifying this relationship.
 More sophisticated forecasting techniques use the secondary data to
forecast some research variables such as sales, profit, income, and so
on.
 After identifying the need of the secondary data, the researcher has
to decide whether an internal or external secondary data source is to
be used.

4. Step 2: Utility of Internal Secondary Data Sources
for the Research Problem
 As a second step, a researcher has to examine the utility of in-
house secondary data in light of
 Objective
 Relevancy
 Accuracy
 Currency
 Authenticity
 Dependability
 action ability

5. Step 3: Utility of External Secondary Data Sources for the
Research Problem
 As shown in Figure 6.5, the external secondary data should
also be tested for all the parameters as it is done for the
internal secondary data.
 In addition, the authenticity of the external secondary data
must also be tested, which was the matter of concern for
the in-house generated data.
 To address the issue of authenticity of the data, a researcher
has to determine “who” collected the data.
 Some research organizations, magazines, books,
periodicals, journals, and so on have got high reputation
and credibility in the society or concerned field.
Government data sources are also authentic.

6. Step 4: Use External Secondary Data for the Research Problem
 After qualifying the first three stages, a researcher finds himself or
herself in a comfortable stage to use the data, as he or she is sure
that the data are useful for the research problem and there is no
harm in using it as it has already been tested for all the discussed
parameters.
 These guidelines are followed only to use the secondary data
sources for a research purpose.
 The final decision is a matter of the researcher’s discretion.
 In most of the cases, it is noted that the researchers commonly
use it to explore the problem and develop insights in to it.