Survey Method essay

Surveys are one of the most popular methods to collect primary data from the informed sources of data. As Denscombe (1998) stated, the purpose of a survey is “to get a detailed and comprehensive view about the data obtained, which will be used for mapping”. There are three main characteristics in survey method which are pointed out by Denscombe (1998) as follows: ? Wide and inclusive coverage ? At a specific point in time ? Empirical research

The popularity of the surveys method is established due to the fact that it provides a quantitative or numeric description of some fraction of the population, that is, the sample, by asking question (Creswell, 1994; Neuman, 2000; Fink, 1995). Under surveys it is possible to make a generalisation of the results obtained as the surveys allow a large number of respondents to participate in the survey (Davis, 1996). However, there is a low-response bias because many people do not wish to participate in the survey (Aaker, Kumar & Day, 1995).

In order to get a clear indication of the systems, procedures and practices of Talent Management, the survey method had been chosen for the collection of more information with the object of describing, comparing or explaining the knowledge, attitude or behavior of the subjects and thereby to arrive at some definite conclusion for the research question. Mail survey will be used to collect a data set from a sample population of music listeners who are most likely in a position to provide the best information available in respect of the impact of the internet on the music in general and the Indian Punjabi music in particular in this research.

According to Robert et al. (2001) mail questionnaires are advantageous when responses for many questions have to be obtained from a sample that is geographically dispersed. As this research will collect data from senior HR Professional across the United Kingdom, mail questionnaire is the most appropriate way to conduct this research. Table 3. 2 shows the main advantages and disadvantages in the mail survey which will be considered in this research.

With the mail surveys, one disadvantage in the research is that a letter, to encourage completion the survey by explaining why they are selected, the importance of the investigation, and how the results will benefit them with confidentiality guarantee in this research has to be sent to the samples for maximising the response rate. In order to pursue this research study it was necessary to select a target population. For the current research the population covers music listeners especially who mostly use internet or listening as well as purchasing music product.

The sample population required for the survey has been selected by communicating through friends and acquaintances. Moreover some music shops were also contacted to collect the email ids of their regular purchasers. By writing to the online music shops also some more customers’ ids were collected. On collection of all the required information on the samples the information on the potential target population was then stratified by the various demographic parameters to arrive at an appropriate random sample population.

The target population was then randomly chosen to reduce the sample size down to 150 different individuals. This approach was necessary for brevity as well as to have an effective follow up with the samples for collection of information on the impact of the internet on the music industry. It was decided to collect the primary data through a self-administered questionnaire distributed to the selected sample population in this research. A questionnaire is a document containing questions and other types of items designed to solicit information appropriate for analysis.

This involved drawing on existing research in the area of impact of internet on the music industry research to identify aspects relevant to the current research. Questionnaires are the instrument of choice for many researchers working in various fields, theoretical traditions and research designs (Creswell 2003, Bryman 2004), no doubt because they are seen as the most appropriate tool to obtain systematic and comparable data from a large number of individuals and analyze it economically (De Witte and van Muijen 1999, Fogelman 2002).

The following section will describe and explain the format, structure and content of the questionnaire. Based on the observations gathered from the literature available in respect of the impact of internet on the music industry, the questionnaire was constructed to collect the information and data from music listeners who are also users of internet. The purpose of the questionnaire was to find out the level and extent of usage of internet for listening to music as well as for purchase of music products.

It was also necessary to find out the interest of the samples in various genres of music and their knowledge on the P2P file sharing. The questions have been constructed as closed end questions giving different options to the respondents to express their opinion about particular issues numerically indicating the degree of availability and intensity of the efforts. The first section of the questionnaire is devoted to the demographic information about the participating individuals. The information about the age, marital status, employment and current income are some of the questions included in this section.

This basic information was collected to tabulate and present the information pertaining to the demography of the participants. This gives the reader an idea about the homogeneity of the sample to represent the bulk of the informants. The second part of the questionnaire is devoted to find out the level of interest of the samples on music. The questions were framed accordingly to gather information on the interest of he samples on the music in general. Here again the questions were framed as closed ones to make the job of the respondents easier.

The third section of the questionnaire deals with the knowledge and usage of the internet by the samples. Relevant questions on the time the samples spend on the internet and also the purposes for which they use internet have been framed. The fourth section relates to the information on the purchase of music by the samples. The last section of the questionnaire contains questions to assess the awareness of the samples on the existence of piracy in the music industry. The results obtained were tabulated and analysed and the findings and analysis are presented in the next Chapter.