Chapter 15 – Data Preparation and Analysis Strategy

Multiple Choice

36. In the marketing research process, data preparation and analysis comes immediately after ________ and
before ____________.
a) problem definition; research design
b) research design; field work
c) field work; research design
d) problem definition; report preparation
e) field work; report preparation and presentation (easy, page 404)

37. According to the text, the data preparation process begins with ______________.
a) validating the questionnaires
b) evaluating the interviewers
c) pretesting the questionnaire
d) transcribing data
e) checking the questionnaires for completeness (difficult, page 405)

38. Which of the following is the last stage of the data preparation process?
a) questionnaire checking
b) coding
c) data cleaning
d) transcribing
e) selecting a data analysis strategy (moderate, page 406)

39. A review of the questionnaires with the objective of increasing accuracy and precision is called
______________.
a. editing (moderate, page 406)
b. coding
c. validating
d. pretesting
e. transcribing

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40. ______________ consists of screening questionnaires to identify illegible, incomplete, inconsistent, or
ambiguous responses.
a. Coding
b. Editing (moderate, page 406)
c. Validating
d. Pretesting
e. Transcribing

41. Which of the following is NOT an alternative for the treatment of unsatisfactory responses?
a. return the questionnaire to the field to get better data
b. assign missing values
c. discard unsatisfactory respondents
d. delete the question from the survey (difficult, page 406)
e. c and d

42. Which of the following is NOT a stage of the data preparation process?
a. questionnaire design (moderate, page 406)
b. editing
c. transcribing
d. data cleaning
e. coding

43. Assigning missing values to unsatisfactory responses may be desirable in all of the following situations
EXCEPT:
a. if the number of responses is small.
b. if the proportion of unsatisfactory responses for each of these respondents is small.
c. if the variables with unsatisfactory responses are not key variables.
d. All of the mentioned situations qualify for the assignment of missing values when
unsatisfactory responses are discovered on a questionnaire. (difficult, page 407)
e. c and d

44. Discarding unsatisfactory responses from collected data may have merit in all of the following situations
EXCEPT:
a. when the proportion of unsatisfactory respondents is small.
b. when the sample size is large.
c. when the unsatisfactory respondents differ from satisfactory respondents in
obvious ways. (difficult, page 407)
d. when the proportion of unsatisfactory responses for each of these respondents is large.
e. responses on key variables are missing.

45. Unsatisfactory responses from collected data may be desirable when the proportion of unsatisfactory
respondents is ______________.
a. less than 10 percent (moderate, page 407)
b. 10 percent to 20 percent
c. 21 percent to 30 percent
d. 31 percent to 40 percent
e. more than 41 percent

46. The assignment of a symbol to represent a specific response to a specific question, along with the data
record and column position that symbol will occupy, is called ______________.
a. editing
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 b. coding (moderate, page 407)
c. sampling
d. pretesting
e. selecting

47. According to the text, the symbol used in the assignment of codes to each possible response to each
question is usually a ______________.
a. letter of the alphabet
b. Greek symbol
c. number (moderate, page 407)
d. binary digit
e. ampersand

48. A book containing coding instructions and the necessary information about variables in the data set is called
a(n) ______________.
a. editing book
b. sampling record
c. codebook (moderate, page 407)
d. questionnaire
e. checking book

49. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the text as an additional code that could be included for each
respondent in the coding process?
a. the project code
b. the interviewer code
c. the supervisor code (difficult, pages 405-406)
d. the validation code
e. codes for responses to questions

50. A code in which the number of records for each respondent is the same, and the same data appear in the
same columns for all respondents is called a _______________.
a. variable field code
b. fixed field code (moderate, page 409)
c. random code
d. virtual code
e. uniform code

51. Coding ______________ questions is relatively simple since the response options are predetermined.
a. unstructured
b. open-ended
c. structured (easy, page 409)
d. free-flowing
e. uniform

52. According to the text, category codes should be _______________ and ______________.
a. Dependent;collectively exhaustive
b. collectively exhaustive; mutually exclusive (difficult, page 410)
c. mutually inclusive; dependent
d. dependent; mutually exclusive
e. precoded; post-coded

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53. Categories are ______________ if each response fits into one and only one category code.
a. dependent
b. mutually inclusive
c. collectively exhaustive
d. mutually exclusive (moderate, page 410)
e. uniform

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54. According to the text, categories are ______________ if every response fits into one of the assigned
category codes.
a. dependent
b. mutually inclusive
c. collectively exhaustive (moderate, page 410)
d. mutually exclusive
e. uniform

55. ______________ data involves transferring the coded data from the questionnaires or coding sheets onto
disks or directly into computers by key punching or other means.
a. Validating
b. Editing
c. Coding
d. Transcribing (moderate, page 411)
e. Selecting

56. _____________ involves direct machine reading of the codes and simultaneous transcription.
a. Optical scanning (moderate, page 411)
b. Key punching
c. Validating
d. Data cleaning
e. Predictive dialing

57. Data are verified as they are collected when all of the following methods are used EXCEPT:
a. CATI.
b. CAPT.
c. electronic methods.
d. keypunching. (moderate, page 411)
e. c and d

58. The thorough and extensive check for consistency and treatment of missing responses is called
______________.
a. validating
b. transcribing
c. data cleaning (moderate, page 412)
d. key punching
e. editing

59. A part of the data cleaning process that identifies data that are out of range or logically inconsistent, or that
have extreme values, is called ______________.
a. transcribing
b. validating
c. consistency checks (moderate, page 412)
d. coding
e. editing

60. All of the following computer packages can be programmed to identify out-of-range values for each
variable and print out the respondent code, variable code, variable name, record number, column number,
and out-of-range value EXCEPT:
a. MINITAB.
b. EXCEL.
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 c. SPSS.
d. WORD. (moderate, page 412)
e. b and d

61. Which of the following is NOT a technique for executing data transcribing?
a. mark-sense forms
b. keypunching
c. optical scanning
d. CATI/CAPI
e. objective sort and entry (moderate, page 412)

62. ______________ represent values of a variable that are unknown, either because respondents provided
ambiguous answers or their answers were not properly recorded.
a. Missing responses (moderate, page 413)
b. Inconsistent responses
c. Out-of-range values
d. Invalid responses
e. Edits

63. Treatment of missing responses poses problems, particularly if the proportion of missing responses is
______________.
a. between 1 percent and 3 percent
b. between 3 percent and 5 percent
c. between 5 percent and 7 percent
d. between 8 percent and 9 percent
e. more than 10 percent (moderate, page 413)

64. Which of the following is NOT an option available for the treatment of missing responses?
a. substitute a neutral value
b. casewise deletion
c. modify the questionnaire (difficult, page 413)
d. pairwise deletion
e. a and c

65. A method for handling missing responses in which respondents with any missing responses are discarded
from the analysis is called ______________.
a. casewise deletion (moderate, page 413)
b. pairwise deletion
c. alternate deletion
d. concurrent deletion
e. both a and b

66. ______________ is a method of handling missing values in which for each calculation or analysis, only the
respondents with complete responses are considered.
a. Casewise deletion
b. Pairwise deletion (moderate, page 413)
c. Alternate deletion
d. Concurrent deletion
e. b and d

67. Pairwise deletion may be appropriate when all of the following conditions are present EXCEPT:

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a. the sample size is large.
b. there are few missing responses.
c. the variables are not highly related.
d. the sample size is small. (difficult, page 413)
e. c and d

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68. ______________ are statistical techniques suitable for analyzing data when there are two or more
measurements on each element and the variables are analyzed simultaneously.
a. Transformational displacement
b. Transform and reform
c. Transform and modify
d. Variable streamlining
e. Variable respecification (moderate, page 414)

69. If there are too few respondents in the lowest income category, this category may be combined or merged
with the next lowest category. This is known as ____________.
a. recombining
b. replication
c. returning
d. resetting
e. recoding (difficult, page 414)

70. Statistical techniques can be broadly classified as ______________ or ______________.

a. univariate or random
b. random or parallel
c. parallel or multivariate
d. univariate or multivariate (moderate, page 415)
e. uniform and non-uniform

71. Statistical techniques appropriate for analyzing data when there is a single measurement of each element in
the sample are called ______________.
a. univariate techniques (difficult, page 415)
b. multivariate techniques
c. random techniques
d. parallel techniques
e. uniform techniques

72. Which of the following statistical techniques is appropriate for analyzing data if there are several
measurements of each element and each variable is analyzed in isolation?
a. univariate techniques (difficult, page 415)
b. multivariate techniques
c. random techniques
d. parallel techniques
e. non-uniform techniques

73. ______________ are statistical techniques suitable for analyzing data when there are two or more
measurements on each element and the variables are analyzed simultaneously.
a. Univariate techniques
b. Multivariate techniques (difficult, page 415)
c. Random techniques
d. Parallel techniques
e. Uniform techniques

74. Which of the following statistical techniques are concerned with the simultaneous relationships among two
or more phenomena?
a. univariate techniques
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 b. multivariate techniques (difficult, page 415)
c. random techniques
d. parallel techniques
e. uniform techniques

75. According to the text, a survey discloses that 31 percent of the respondents preferred the client's brand,
while 30.8 per cent preferred the closest competing brand. In such a case, it is perfectly fine to announce
that the client's brand is the dominant brand. Such a situation would be _______________.
a. acceptable based on the facts of the survey
b. acceptable is only the client was told this
c. impossible to weigh in with a moral judgment based on these details
d. unacceptable if only the client was told this
e. unacceptable because it is misleading. The brands have virtual parity. (moderate,
page 417)

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