Group Assignment: Survey Design And Data Analysis

Survey Design

Since the emergence of computers and their incorporation in various daily activities have made computers to be on high demand in the market. Various sectors ranging from education, banking, agriculture and business sectors as a whole depend on computers to ease their activities (Eid, and El-Gohary, 2013). In each environment, computers are acquired and made in use to serve different purposes (Bolton et al., 2013). Computers are available in different types and brands from different computer manufacturers. Some of the commonly used computers types are the desktop computers, laptops and the notebooks.

Desktops are not easy to move around with and depends on the plug and use power hence is difficult to move around with and thus only installed in specific place (such as offices) for use (Melenka, Schofield, Dawson, and Carey, 2015). Laptops on the other hand have their power storage batteries and thus capable of being in use even when it is not plugged in the power source. Consequently, laptops are easier to carry around due to their light weights and do not require large spaces when moved around (Jiménez-Parra, Rubio and Vicente-Molina, 2014). In that regard, they are preferred by different people such as the students, researchers, motivational speakers etc. Students and the researchers engage their laptops particularly for the learning and research activities to hone their skills and knowledge depending on their areas of study and research all over the world (Gaudreau, Miranda and Gareau, 2014).

Australia forming part of the world and having population of people engaging in different activities, it also requires computers just like any other country with computers in use. Computer era have transformed how things are done from tradition or manual ways to digital way (i.e. information storage are not nowadays in files in the cabinet but in the computers). Among other cities in Australia and Sydney being one of the cities, it recorded one of the highest sales of laptops in the country. This is due to large population in the city of about over 5 million people since population is directly related to higher number of customers thus higher sales (Roberts, Stark, Harkness, and Ellis, 2013). Some of the factors that could lead to high sales of laptops in the city could be availability of many higher learning institutions of over 20 within and around the city which translates to large number of prospective buyers. Prices also make part of the factors but it seems relatively the same across other cities in Australia. The main purpose of this report is to determine some of the features the customers consider while purchasing laptops from dealers in Sydney city.

Data Collection

 Methods of data collection

This section will consist of the target population, data collection techniques and data analysis.

Target population

This is the entire objects of interest in the study where in this case it is over five million people in Sydney city. Due to the cost and time involved in reaching that population, a sample was chosen. A sample is a fraction or proportion of a population of interest in the study (Malterud, Siersma and Guassora, 2016; Schönbrodt and Perugini, 2013). In relation to the same, sample size is the specific number of objects involved in the study from the targeted population. In order to have a clear picture of the purchase of laptops in Sydney, a sample size of 20 individuals was engaged in the study. The sample size was small but was preferred due to its cost effectiveness and time involved other than when a large sample size was used. The data sample is assumed to have fully represented the population and therefore the sample statistic will best estimate the population parameter.

Data collection techniques

These are the methods that are used by researchers to obtain data from the participants in relation to the subject under study (Fabijan, Olsson and Bosch, 2015). Some of the data collection techniques that a researcher can choose from include; interviews, surveys, questionnaires, observations etc. This study made use of the questionnaire interviews where questions were structured including both open ended and closed ended questions. The aim for using different types of the questions in the questionnaire was with the aim of achieving both qualitative and quantitative data. Questionnaires were taken to the randomly selected 20 participants for their responses under administration of the researcher. Respondents are in most cases able to have time to critically think with the questions and provide the appropriate answers as per the questions when the questionnaires are used. That formed one of the reasons why questionnaire was preferred for use in this study.

Data analysis

Frequency and descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of data to bring easy understanding of the data and better representation of data. Microsoft excel was the statistical software that was used in the analysis of data for easy interpretations. Ten variables were achieved in the data set from the ten questions in the questionnaire. Categorical variables were; gender, laptop-make, soft-pad, processor and warranty. Numerical variables were; price, screen-size, processor-speed, HDD-capacity and RAM-capacity. The sample data was as presented in the below table;

Data Analysis

Table 1: Data Set Sample

Summary of the data set

Figure 1For the question of the preferred type of computer, 20% preferred HP, 30% Dell, 15% Acer, 15% Lenovo, 10% Asus and another 10% for other makes of laptops. From the results, dell was the most preferred laptop by the respondents.Among other factors that the laptop users considered when buying the laptops was whether the laptop was using the soft-pad or the trackpads. In that regard, most of the respondents agreed to be considering that when purchasing laptops represented by 65% against 35% who never considered that.Processor was also another one feature that most of the laptop buyers considered. Consequently, Intel processor was greatly preferred over Icore processors as represented by 55% and 45% respectively.Some of the services that were offered by the laptop dealers attract customers to buying from them. One of such is warranty offered to the laptops. 85% of the respondents responded that they considered buying laptops with warranty against only 15% who never considered warranty.

Table 2: Price summary

The mean price of the laptops preferred by the respondents was $380.35 with the standard deviation of $75.55. The most expensive laptop preferred by the participants costed $540 and the cheapest preferred costed $290. The data collected was positively skewed having most of the data to the right hand side of the mean value.

Descriptive data analysis

 The mean value of screen sizes preferred by the respondents was 16.1 inches. The sizes were deviated from the mean by 1.07703 with the variance of 1.16. The largest screen size ever preferred by the respondents was 18 inches with the smallest being 14.8 inches. The data for screen size were positively skewed.

The mean speed of processor from the data provided by the respondents was 2.3465GHz with the speed values spread from mean by 0.70136GHz and the variance of 0.491919. The maximum processor speed preferred by the respondents was 4GHz and the lowest speed being 1.6GHz. Further, the values from this variable were positively skewed.

Hard disk capacity preferred by the respondents in the sample had the mean of 417.5GB. The HDD capacities were deviated from the mean by 240.7636GB and a sample variance of 57967.11GB. The largest HDD capacity preferred by the participants was 1000GB and the lowest of 150GB. The data in the variable were as well positively skewed to mean that there were so many HDD capacities to the right hand side of the mean HDD capacity.

Reporting Format

Interval estimation

Margin of errors

 Marginal errors for screen size, processor speed and the HDD capacity was calculated at 0.05 level of significance. From the results, screen size had the marginal error of 0.472031 inches for which the population parameter would be above or below the calculated sample screen mean. The speed of processor had marginal error of 0.307389GHz. As a result, the actual processor speed would above or below the statistic mean that marginal error. The hard disk capacity from the sample had the marginal error of 105.5193GB. This means that the actual hard disk capacity would be above or below the calculated mean by that margin of error.

Confidence intervals

Further, the confidence interval was calculated for screen size, processor speed and the HDD capacity at 95% confidence interval. The confidence interval for screen size was (15.62797 – 16.57203) Inches, meaning that we are 95% confident that the actual screen size mean would lie in that range. Also, we were as well confident that the accrual mean speed of processor would lie in the range of (2.039111 – 2.653889) GHz. Finally, the confidence interval for HDD capacity was (311.9807 – 523.0193) GB. In can then be concluded we are 95% confident that the actual HDD capacity mean would lie in the stated range.

Conclusion

From the research, it can be concluded that the make of laptop that was mostly preferred by the respondents was Dell with features such as having the soft-pads instead of the trackpads and having Intel processor with warranty. The data across all the variables were positively skewed as they all had positive skewness value. The most preferred hard disk (HDD) capacity was 500GB HDD and the laptop screen size of 15.6 inches.

In regards to that, it can therefore be recommended that for laptop business to thrive in Sydney, the business should consider having many of Dell make laptops in their stocks. Also, the laptops supplied should have touch-pads instead of trackpads with Intel processor and warranty for the laptop so that incase of anything before the warranty period elapses, the customers can still have assistance from the suppliers. Most of the laptops supplied should have 15.6 inches screen size and 500GB HDD. 

References

Bolton, R.N., Parasuraman, A., Hoefnagels, A., Migchels, N., Kabadayi, S., Gruber, T., Komarova Loureiro, Y. and Solnet, D., 2013. Understanding Generation Y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda. Journal of service management, 24(3), pp.245-267.

Eid, R. and El-Gohary, H., 2013. The impact of E-marketing use on small business enterprises’ marketing success. The Service Industries Journal, 33(1), pp.31-50.

Fabijan, A., Olsson, H.H. and Bosch, J., 2015, June. Customer feedback and data collection techniques in software R&D: a literature review. In International Conference of Software Business (pp. 139-153). Springer, Cham.

Gaudreau, P., Miranda, D. and Gareau, A., 2014. Canadian university students in wireless classrooms: What do they do on their laptops and does it really matter?. Computers & Education, 70, pp.245-255.

Jiménez-Parra, B., Rubio, S. and Vicente-Molina, M.A., 2014. Key drivers in the behavior of potential consumers of remanufactured products: a study on laptops in Spain. Journal of Cleaner Production, 85, pp.488-496.

Malterud, K., Siersma, V.D. and Guassora, A.D., 2016. Sample size in qualitative interview studies: guided by information power. Qualitative health research, 26(13), pp.1753-1760.

Melenka, G.W., Schofield, J.S., Dawson, M.R. and Carey, J.P., 2015. Evaluation of dimensional accuracy and material properties of the MakerBot 3D desktop printer. Rapid Prototyping Journal, 21(5), pp.618-627.

Roberts, T., Stark, D., Harkness, J. and Ellis, J., 2013. Subtype distribution of Blastocystis isolates identified in a Sydney population and pathogenic potential of Blastocystis. European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases, 32(3), pp.335-343.

Schönbrodt, F.D. and Perugini, M., 2013. At what sample size do correlations stabilize?. Journal of Research in Personality, 47(5), pp.609-612.

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