Differentiate between internal and external secondary data.

Differentiate between internal and external secondary data. What are the advantages and disadvantages of secondary data ?

What is the difference between primary and secondary data? Why is it important to obtain secondary data before primary data ?

Ans.

Primary Data

Primary data may be described as those data that have been observed and recorded by the researchers for the first time to their knowledge.

Primary data are formulated on the basis of research objectives.

Objectives set the guidelines and directions of research planning. Importance of various methods of primary data collection are as follows:

(1) The behaviour being observed in natural environment will not cause any bias. Observation will neither be artificial nor restrictive.

(2) It is effective especially for studying social processes in depth over time.

(3) It is a flexible technique in which research design can be modified at any time.

(4) It is relatively inexpensive.

Meaning and Sources of Secondary Data

Secondary data means data that are already available i.e., they refer to the data which have already been collected and analysed by someone else. When the researcher utilises secondary data, then he has to look into various sources from where he can obtain them. In this case he is certainly not confronted with the problems that are usually associated with the collection of original data. Secondary data may either be published data or unpublished data. Usually published data are available in: (a) various publications of the central, state are local governments; (b) various publications of foreign governments or of international bodies and their subsidiary organisations; (c) technical and trade journals; (d) books, magazines and newspapers; (e) reports and publications of various associations connected with business and industry, banks, stock exchanges, etc.; (f) reports prepared by research scholars, universities, economists, etc., in different fields; and (g) public records and statistics, historical documents, and other sources of published information. The sources of unpublished data are many, they may be found in diaries, letters, unpublished biographies and autobiographies and also may be available with scholars and research workers, trade associations, labour bureaus and other public/private individuals and organisations.

Difference between Internal and External Secondary Data

Internal Secondary Data	External Secondary Data
1. Data that originate within the firm for which the research is being conducted are internal data.	1. External secondary data are external sources which generally published and are are available in different forms and from different sources.
2. Internal secondary data is usually an inexpensive information source for the company conducting research, and is the place to start for existing operations.	2. External secondary data is usually an expensive information source for the company conducting research and it takes time to search data.
3. Sources of internal secondary data are Sales Analysis, Invoice Analysis, and Accounting Records. Internally generated sales and pricing data can be used as a research source.	3. Sources of external secondary data are libraries, Literature, Periodicals, Census and Registration Data, Trade Associations, Government Departments etc.,

Advantages of Secondary Data

The following are the major advantages of Secondary Data:

1. The use of Secondary Data collection is comparatively very cheap, as in primary data collection, the data collected is always in the original form thus the cost goes very high whereas secondary data is less costly. No need to form own designs and print the questionnaire and appoint field staff to collect desired information. All such activities would need heavy expenditure the secondary data are already collected, the only care to be taken is the researcher should be carful about its use.

2. A lost of time of researcher is saved as data is already collected only desired information be taken out. The desired research work can be completed within no time thus time saved can be used for other purposes.

3. The secondary source of data collection is more scientific as all related data are compared and checked by other samples. These data are not only suitable for research purpose but useful in knowing the difficulties and gap if any in secondary data.

4. The researcher explores the availability of secondary data relevant to his project, he finds, in the process, that his understanding to the problem has enriched. In the process of research he can change his earlier view point in the light of availability of secondary data.

5. The secondary data can be used as a basis for comparison with primary data that researcher has recently collected for his study.

Disadvantages of Secondary Data

The major disadvantages are listed as follows:

1. The use of secondary data are not suitable for high degree accuracy of work. In such studies only primary source of data collection is recommended.

2. The secondary data suffers from bias opinion of the previous researcher who collected these information, otherwise the very existence of data collected is doubtful.

3. One should not use secondary data without going to the background of previous researcher who collected these data. There may a possibility that his objective was quite different than that of the next user.

4. In experienced and lesser capable persons collected data are not fit for use. The previous researcher should be competent, experienced and reliable only his data collected are of value.

5. One should be familiar with the scope and objectives of the previous or original research for which these were collected.

6. The mode of selection of data can be census or sampling where sampling is exercise for collection of facts one should note carefully. What was the size of sample, how samples were selected.

7. Before using secondary data the researcher must see its time or period of collection, conditions in which these were collected such as: war, boom period, depression period etc.

Researcher must be very careful in using secondary data. He must make a minute scrutiny because it is just possible that the secondary data may be unsuitable or may be inadequate in the context of the problem which the researcher wants to study. In this connection Dr. A.L. Bowley very aptly observes that it is never safe to take published statistics at their face value without knowing their meaning and limitations and it is always necessary to criticise arguments that can be based on them.

By way of caution, the researcher, before using secondary data, must see that they possess following characteristics:

1. Reliability of data: The reliability can be tested by finding out such things about the said data: (a) Who collected the data? (b) What were the sources of data? (c) Were they collected by using proper methods (d) At what time were they collected? (e) Was there any bias of the compiler? (f) What level of accuracy was desired? Was it achieved?

2. Suitability of data: The data that are suitable for one enquiry may not necessarily be found suitable in another enquiry. Hence if the available data are found to be unsuitable, they should not be used by the researcher. In this context, the researcher must very carefully scrutinise the definition of various terms and units of collection used at the time of collecting the data from the primary source originally. Similarly, the object, scope and nature of the original enquiry must also be studied. If the researcher finds differences in these, the data will remain unsuitable for the present enquiry and should not be used.

3. Adequacy of data: If the level of accuracy achieved in data is found inadequate for the purpose of the present enquiry, they will be considered as inadequate and should not be used by the researcher. The data will also be considered inadequate, if they are related to an area which may be either narrower or wider than the area of the present enquiry.

From all this we can say that it is very risky to use already available data. The already available data should be used by the researcher only when he finds them reliable, suitable and adequate. But he should not blindly discard the use of such data if they are readily available from authentic sources and are also suitable and adequate for in that case it will not be economical to spend time and energy in field surveys for collecting information. At times, there may be wealth of usable information in the already available data which must be used by an intelligent researcher but with due precaution.