Question

1b. Identify/describe four sources of secondary data. 1c. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each type (secondary vs primary). *Questions from the book Marketing 13th Edition

Answer 1

1b.

First source of secondary data is government websites of different government ministries & departments that represent official data.

Second source of secondary data is peer reviewed journals that are either published online or offline.

Third source of secondary data is web portals of industry associations that present their own research outcome.

Fourth source of secondary data is domain specific web portals such as Yahoo finance to get domain specific secondary data.

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1C.

Advantages for the first source of secondary data are its authenticity, official recognition and widespread acknowledgement of the data. Though, the disadvantages are the data being pro to the government or data of that past period that may not be relevant.

Advantages for the second source are that it is genuine, authentic and already reviewed by the experts. Here, disadvantages are that these data may not be free, or data may be of different country or context or limited in scope.

Advantages for third source are it is industry specific, relevant and latest data. Though, the disadvantage is that it may not be precise,  with a bias of overestimation or underestimation.

Advantages for the fourth source are that it provides specific and latest data. But, its research method will be of doubt as a disadvantage since data at these portals are taken from third party sources.