Page 84 - IMDR EBOOK 20 OCT 2020

"Pandemic and Beyond: Naviga ng the New Normal" E - Book Year 2020

A qualitative research data collection technique would involve interviews as a suitable
method, which would not help in yielding accurate outcomes. In case a secondary
research method was to be applied to the present research, the ndings from research
articles, journals and paper published may not be able to project the accurate current
picture. Data collection using interview or secondary approach would thus not help in
getting the current direct and quantiable data to infer accurate understanding.
This research will be using a quantitative research strategy and hence will require
quantitative data collection based in formats that can be converted to mathematical
formats. This method is cheap and can be applied within shorter time durations. Also,
it will make it easy to make comparisons of ndings. It is necessary to design Survey
questionnaires to conduct a quantitative research (Prasad and Gudimetla, 2019). Data
was collected through a survey in the form of a questionnaire which was chosen for this
research. The questionnaire incorporated questions or statements relevant to the
topic.
3.2 The Questionnaire

A standard pre designed survey questionnaire consisting of 5 statements and
questions was prepared and circulated in the representative sample group for
validation. The representative group consisted of 10 business owners including
apparel retailers, car showroom owners and restaurant owners. The group found the
questionnaire to be reliable and valid. The respondents had to answer questions on
their estimation on the impact of COVID-19 on their business and their estimates on
the impact thereof on the advertising budgets and channels.
The respondents needed to answer each question to give their opinions. Each
respondent responding to the same set of questions, does provide an efcient method of
collecting answers from a large sample prior to quantitative analysis (Saunders et al.,
2009: 361). Reaching out to every relevant participant chosen as the research sample
in person is not feasible for the researcher, hence a self-administered survey
questionnaire was prepared and posted on “google forms”. The link for the same was
sent to the representative group and used for data collection.

3.3 Sampling Technique
Sampling allows researchers to gather information about a population based on results
from a subset of the population, without the researcher having to investigate every
individual. For the research to get generate valid results on the basis of appropriate
analysis of the research, data gathered by the researcher needs to be an accurate
sample selected (Gupta et al. 2015). It is very important for a sample to be
representative of the population, this ensures that the ndings from the research
sample are generalised to the population as a whole. Since conclusions on populations
are drawn from samples, it becomes important to be able to use inferential statistics to
determine a populations characteristic by analysing a sample. Sampling techniques
are classied into Stratied Random Sampling, Convenient Sampling, Simple Random
Sampling, Purposive Sampling, and Snowball Sampling. Each research needs to select
one of these sampling techniques basis various criteria.

A purposive sample is a heterogeneous sample which is selected on the basis of the
objective of the study and the characteristics of a population.

For the present research project, purposive sampling technique was found to be the
most suitable. A common characteristic of the sample population in this study is that
the entire sample population is an expert in his eld with a minimum of 20 years of
industry experience the authenticity of the data and information projected by them
according to their experiences can be believed to support the research outcomes.
With an aim to make inferences about a population from a small sample determining
the sample size or choosing the number of observations is important. In general, larger
sample sizes lead to greater precision, validity and reliability. The sample size allows
the validity, reliability and generalisability related with the research process. In this

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