Sampling Plans Activity 2

The student council wants to know how interested the sophomore class (100 students) would be in taking a field trip to Philadelphia.

What sample design would be most appropriate for obtaining useful data, briefly explaining your reasoning.

Answer explanation

SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING: i

t’s a small population with a complete and accurate population list, so this design would work well. It wouldn’t be difficult to put all 100 names in a hat and draw out 20 or so.

Researchers need data from people who are homeless or do not have permanent addresses. What sample design would be most appropriate for obtaining useful data, briefly explaining your reasoning.

Answer explanation

Snowball sampling;

this is a difficult-to-reach population, so it would help for researchers to find a few respondents to begin with, then ask for referrals for friends and acquaintances they could also survey.

Researchers need to draw data from respondents throughout North America. What sample design would be most appropriate for obtaining useful data, briefly explaining your reasoning.

Answer explanation

Cluster sampling;

North America is a huge area to cover, so cluster sampling could make the process more efficient for researchers.

Working on a very short deadline, researchers need data from local consumers. What sample design would be most appropriate for obtaining useful data, briefly explaining your reasoning.

Answer explanation

Convenience sampling;

this design works well in a short time frame. Researchers could stand outside a store or the mall to recruit respondents.

Researchers need to draw data from a target population that includes both men and women, but they want to study the results of each group separately. What sample design would be most appropriate for obtaining useful data, briefly explaining your reasoning.

Answer explanation

Stratified random sampling or quota sampling;

these methods allow researchers to draw samples from specific subgroups of the population. Stratified random sampling is random and representative, while quota sampling is not. It would depend on the needs of the research study as to which design would work best.

A marketing research study requires data from the expertise of pediatricians. What sample design would be most appropriate for obtaining useful data, briefly explaining your reasoning.

Answer explanation

Judgment sampling;

this design allows researchers to draw data from the knowledge of experts in certain fields.

Marketers for a consumer-products company need opinions on a potential new product, but they don’t have much time. They stop customers at several grocery stores to ask survey questions.

Which sample design the marketers are using?

Answer explanation

Convenience sampling.

It’s advantageous because it’s quick and easy. However, its results cannot be considered representative of the entire population. Marketers may need more to go on for something as important as launching a brand-new product.

Marketers for a food manufacturer are interested in knowing more about their wholesale partners, but they also want to study specific groups of wholesalers determined by their levels of sales volume. They use a sample design that allows them to study the whole population as well as the specific subgroups. Which sample design the marketers are using?

Answer explanation

Stratified random sampling.

It’s advantageous because it allows marketers to study specific subgroups of the population and because its results are representative. Sometimes, however, marketers have trouble defining what the subgroups should be.

A nonprofit organization wants to conduct marketing research on how many at-risk teenagers would be willing to join its after-school program. It’s difficult to find respondents, so marketers find a few to begin with and ask them to refer their friends.

Which sample design the marketers are using and explain the advantages and disadvantages of using this design.

Answer explanation

Snowball sampling.

It works well in small, hard-to-reach populations such as this, where respondents can be difficult to find. However, its results are not representative.

A startup business has 30 clients. Its marketers want to survey the clients regarding their satisfaction, and since there aren’t very many, they put the names into a hat, drawing out 10.

Which sample design the marketers are using?

Answer explanation

Simple random sampling.

It works well in small populations with accurate and complete population lists. As the company’s client list grows, however, simple random sampling may become too labor-intensive.