Retail business Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Retail business - Dissertation Example Secondary research involves using collecting information on a phenomenon under study from existing resources of databases. Secondary research is cheaper relative to primary research. In addition, it takes less time to collect and analyze data in secondary research compared to primary research. Secondary data analysis enables a research to analyze data from large samples. This kind of analyses would be difficult when conducting a primary research due to time and financial constraints (David & Sutton 2004, p.69; Hulley 2007, p. 207). Researchers sometimes utilize primary and secondary research methods in the same study. The information collected from secondary sources in some cases is sufficient to answer all the research questions in a study. This is particularly true for studies that many researchers have analyzed the research topic extensively and the researcher may not add any new insights into the field by conducting a primary research. In addition, sometimes secondary data is the only source of information on a research topic especially when a researcher is not able to conduct a primary research. Secondary data is useful in a research for providing a foundation or background information on the research problem. In this case, secondary data shapes the expectations of a researcher and provides the current level of knowledge on the topic under study (Wrenn, Stevens & Loudon 2006, p. 71; Webb 2002, p. 32). In the proposed study, the information from secondary sources will be sufficient to answer all the research questions. Extensive research has been conducted by independent researchers and those working under government agencies on UK’s retail sector. It is possible for the researcher to conduct a primary research on the UK’s retail sector. However, such a research would be tedious because the retail sector is large. For the researcher to obtain a sample that would be a true representation of the entire retail sector, different organizations in d ifferent industries would be involved in the study. A large sample would be required and this is costly in terms of time spent in collecting and analyzing data from a large sample as well as resource requirement. Researchers use secondary data as a source of exploratory information on their research topics. This exploratory information helps a research in designing research instruments for a primary research. For instance, a researcher may use the exploratory information as a guide to formulating questions in a questionnaire or for focus groups. The nature of existing secondary data on a research topic can help a researcher in making a decision on the most appropriate research design to use in his or her studies. For instance, secondary data may indicate past attempts by other researchers to conduct primary research on a topic and their success or failure. If past researchers have ruled out the possibility of conducting a primary research in a certain filed, secondary data will help a researcher to save time and resources by adopting a secondary research design (Wrenn, Stevens & Loudon 2006, p. 72). The existing literature on UK’s retail sector indicates the significance of the sector to the economy as well as its magnitude. The retail sector is large and consists of very many significant industries. Past researches and government publications indicate its trend over the years including its performance during the financial crisis. This