Running head: INDIVIDUAL WORK WEEK FOUR 1

Business Research – 5910

Secondary Data

Individual Work Week Four

Loraine J Jackson

Everest University

INDIVIDUAL WORK WEEK FOUR 2

Secondary Data

With secondary data, researchers can test research questions that would be difficult to

examine any other way. For example, what matters when it comes to firm performance?

Secondary data sources such as the Nielsen database, Compustat, and the American

Consumer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) can be useful.

Part 1

Describe sources for the following data. Use a search engine such as Google or Yahoo! to

assist in your search.

•Population, average income, and employment rates for Oregon

In this example, the sources for this secondary data is the Office of Economic Analysis

(OEA) which make available independent estimates of the state’s economy, revenue, population,

corrections population which are used to assist he public, the governor, the legislature, other state

organizations, to reach specific objectives in these areas. This source can be helpful in

determining the amount of funding a city will receive from the government for each school

district, for example.

•Maps of the U.S. counties and cities

There are many secondary sources that include maps of counties and cities across the

United States. These sources can be helpful in defining various areas of a state, as well as to gain

insight on economic actions, increase knowledge in regard to colleges and universities and

religious accommodations, as well as state and local parks and other recreational areas. County

and city maps also provide information about the terrain and the lay of the land and where lakes

and rivers cross to other cities.

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•Trends in automobile ownership

In researching trends in automobile ownership, information that can be determined by

this type of secondary research include the types of automobiles that are being purchased, the

number of vehicles that are being purchased by a typical family, as well as how many miles are

being put on an automobile in a year’s time. In addition, to this mileage number, it can be

determined how many miles are logged as personal or pleasure such as taking a vacation, and

how many miles are a result of a daily commute. In addition, this research can give information

as to how often a household buys a new automobile, the age of the drivers in addition to how

many vehicles are owned. This secondary research also provides information as to the type and

number of vehicles in reference to the population and income differences.

•Divorce trends in the United States

This data can be located in websites such as the CDC under the heading of vital statistics.

Information that can be found by this secondary research is the number of divorces in a year’s

time as well as increases or decreases in these numbers. Further, it gives data as to the number of

marriages, divorces, and annulments in relation to population as well as the rate per 1,000 total

populations, and these rates are based on the most recent census (National Marriage and Divorce

Rate Trends, 2015).

•Median weekly earnings of full-time, salaried workers for the previous five years

Secondary research of this type can be found in many government websites such as the

Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data research that is found in these sites can

provide insight as to the gender gap in relation to salary, as well as the differences in salary for

different ethnicities such as African Americans and Hispanics. Further, information such as the

median salary for teachers and in regard to the major occupational groups, persons employed full

INDIVIDUAL WORK WEEK FOUR 4

time in management, professional, and related occupations had the highest median weekly

earnings (Usual Weekly Earnings Summary, 2015). This information can be helpful in seeing the

trends over recent years as well as the influence that education, gender, ethnicities, and age play

on the median salaries.

•Annual sales of the top ten fast-food companies

This type of secondary data demonstrates the trend for an evolving in the fast-food

industry. Of course, there are industry leaders such as McDonalds, Wendy’s, and Burger King in

the top ten, but there is also an emergence of different eating trends like Panera Bread and

Starbucks being ranked higher than ever. In exploring this website, I found that fast food is still

popular; however, the casual dining is gaining in popularity, such as Chipotle Mexican Grill, and

Boston Market and McAlister's Deli being in 50th place (The QSR 50, 2014). Looking at the

change that Subway experienced from one year to the next indicates the change to healthier

eating as well.

•Top ten websites ranked by unique visitors

In this type of research, I discovered that Americans spend an enormous amount of time

on the Internet searching sites such as Facebook, Yahoo! and Google. These three are the top

three in this research survey (Burn-Murdoch, 2012) This indicates to me that Americans use the

Internet to search websites for pleasure and socializing as well as for discovering information

concerning current event, news, and also to find information about a specific topic.

•Attendance at professional sports events

This source provides data that indicates that it is become increasingly difficult to fill the

stands in many professional sporting events. According to this Lee Igel, a professor of sports

management at New York University, "You've got a lot of competing factors in this, even bad

INDIVIDUAL WORK WEEK FOUR 5

weather". "But with the economy still sorting itself out, there's the huge cost of going to live

events plus fighting through traffic and parking just to get to the games." (Koba, 2013) The

economy has a lot to do with the attendance records and this is evident in the research data

provided by this website. In addition, there are missing fans in various professional sports, and

sports teams are attempting to entice fans back with incentives such as free hat day, fireworks,

and even concerts after the games.

Part 2

Locate a business research article that used secondary data. Provide a brief summary of

the article and describe the source of the secondary data used. Describe why you chose the

source you did. Do you believe this to be the best secondary source available? Why or why

not?

The article I chose discusses the need for the increasing awareness in regard to

occupational safety and mounting fear concerning the prevention of needle stick injury and

injection devices that are safe among manufacturers of these products and healthcare workers.

Not only is this topic important for the well-being of healthcare professionals, but it is important

for new start up companies of new, safer devices. I feel this research source is very accurate

because in the field of medicine and healthcare, documentation is necessary and I feel this data is

reliable and can provide precise information on this topic. According to the article, the

methodology of their research was completed by individuals who conducted interviews with

experts in the area (academia, industry, medical practice and other associations) to solicit their

opinions on emerging trends in the market (Needlestick Safety Injection Devices Market, 2015).

In addition, this data has been checked for accuracy from multiple sources of information

INDIVIDUAL WORK WEEK FOUR 6

including annual reports and databases, news releases, Government policy documents, and

reports from analysts, all very credible sources.

INDIVIDUAL WORK WEEK FOUR 7

References

Burn-Murdoch, J. (2012, June 22). US web statistics released for May 2012: which sites

dominate, and where do we go for online news? Retrieved August 9, 2015, from The

Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/jun/22/website-visitor-

statistics-nielsen-may-2012-google

Koba, M. (2013, June 22). Keeping fans in the stands is getting harder to do. Retrieved August

9, 2015, from Yahoo Sports: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--keeping-fans-in-the-

stands-is-getting-harder-to-do-005355696.html

National Marriage and Divorce Rate Trends. (2015, February 19). Retrieved August 9, 2015,

from Centers for Disease Control and prevention:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/marriage_divorce_tables.htm

Needlestick Safety Injection Devices Market. (2015, July 30). Retrieved 9 2015, August, from

Yahoo Finance: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/needlestick-safety-injection-devices-

market-

233100715.html;_ylt=AwrC0F_KGMhV2hoA1szQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTBydWNmY2

MwBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwM0BHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--

The QSR 50. (2014, August). Retrieved August 9, 2015, from QSR:

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/reports/qsr50-2014-top-50-chart

Usual Weekly Earnings Summary. (2015, July 21). Retrieved August 9, 2015, from Bureau of

Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.nr0.htm