Secondary Data Sources

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this chapter, you will be able to:

 Understand the meaning of primary and secondary data

 Get the insight of benefits and limitations of using secondary data
 Understand the classification of secondary data
 Use different sources of secondary data for a research problem
 Understand the roadmap for using secondary data.
Meaning of Primary and Secondary Data

 Primary data are mainly collected by a researcher to address

the research problem. In other words, these are not readily
available from various sources, rather the researcher has to
systematically collect it for a pre-specified research problem.
 Secondary data are the data that have already been collected by
someone else before the current needs of a researcher.
 The present researcher only uses these data with related
reference and never collects it from the field.
 When compared with the primary data, secondary data can be
collected easily with time and cost efficiency.
 Both the primary and the secondary data have its own relative
advantages and disadvantages.
Benefits and Limitations of Using
Secondary Data
 The main advantage of using secondary data sources is that they
already exist; therefore, the time spent on the study is considerably
less than that on studies that use the primary data collection.
 The disadvantages of using secondary data are related to the fact
that their selection and quality, and the methods of their
collection, are not under the control of the researcher and that
they are sometimes impossible to validate (Sorensen et al., 1996).
 There may be cases when the problem is general, such as the
demographic structure of a population at a particular region, in
such cases there is no meaning in collecting the primary data.
 The various available secondary data sources such as the
indiastat.com, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)
products, and so on are capable of providing this information and
are easily accessible.
Benefits and Limitations of Using
Secondary Data (Cont.)
 Regarding disadvantages, the accuracy of secondary data is
most of the time questionable as the researcher is unaware
about the pattern of data collection.
 In addition, the researcher has no control over the data
collection pattern.
 The researcher may try to use the secondary data that are
developed for some other purpose in some other time frame in
some other circumstances.
 This poses a great question mark on the currency and relevance
of the data in terms of its use in the current problem.
 Moreover, the secondary data become outdated quickly. It is a
big restriction on the frequent use of the secondary data.
Classification of Secondary Data Sources

 Secondary data sources can be broadly classified into internal

and external secondary data sources.
 The internal secondary data are generated within the
organization and the external secondary data are obtained
from the sources available outside the organization.
 The internal secondary data are the internal records of the
organization.
 The external secondary data can be further classified into the
following four groups: books, periodicals, and other published
material; reports and publication from government sources;
computerized commercial and other online data sources; and
media resources ( Figure 1 ).
Figure 1: Classification of secondary data sources
 Books, Periodicals, and Other
Published Material

 The books, periodicals, and other published material generally

available in most of the libraries are big sources of secondary
data.
 Now, most of the big libraries in our country are in the process of
digitizing the published material.
 It seems that it will be convenient for a researcher to access any
information after a decade, which will be available in a digital
form.
 Libraries also provide access to some good research journals of
the country.
 Reports and Publication from
Government Sources
 Government sources also provide data. The accuracy and quality of these
data sources are unquestionable.
 Hence, most researchers rely on government sources of data to conduct
their research programme.
 Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of
India (http://mospi.gov.in).
 National Statistics Commission, the Central Statistical Organization.
 The Office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India
(http://www.censusindia.gov.in).
 Director General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Ministry of
Commerce and Industry, Government of India (http://www.dgciskol.nic.in).
 Reserve Bank of India (http://www.rbi.org.in)
 Planning Commission, Government of India(http://planningcommission.gov.in)
 Computerized Commercial and
Other Data Sources
 In India, there are various firms involved in selling data. For
example, indiastat.com and CMIE are two private firms involved
in the accumulation and selling of the data.
 In India, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has set-
up the “Indian National Digital Library in Engineering Sciences
and Technology (INDEST) Consortium” headquartered at IIT,
Delhi. The Ministry provides funds required for subscription of
electronic resources for 48 institutions including IISc, IITs, NITs,
IIMs, and a few other centrally funded government institutions
through the consortium headquartered at IIT, Delhi.
 In addition, 60 government or government-aided engineering
colleges and technical departments in the universities have
joined the consortium with financial support from the All India
Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
FIGURE 6.2 : Home page of indiastat.com
Figure 2 : Home page of Prowess V. 3.1 (a product of the CMIE)
Figure 3 : Home page (e-resources) of INDEST
 Media Resources
 Some relevant and authentic information can also be gathered from
the broadcast and print media. Apart from the academic
researchers, the print and electronic media frequently conduct
researches related to personal life, professional life, life style,
change in life style, income status, change in income status, and
many other issues.
 Leading news papers such as The Economic Times, Pioneer, The
Hindu, The Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, The Telegraph
(Kolkata), The Asian Age, The Hindu Business Line, Business
Standard, The Financial Express, and many more national and
regional newspapers have plentiful information.
 Apart from the daily newspapers, some magazines such as India
Today, Outlook, Business India, Business Today, Competition
Success Review, and so on provide a lot of information related to the
current issues.
Fig. 4: Roadmap to Use Secondary Data
 Step 1: Identifying the Need of
Secondary Data for Research
 As a first step, a researcher must identify the need of using the
secondary data for the research. These are generally used to
find the already available facts about a phenomenon.
 The secondary data sources help in developing a theoretical
model, which ultimately should be tested statistically.
 To develop a model, a researcher has to specify the relationship
between two or more variables and the secondary data
support in specifying this relationship.
 More sophisticated forecasting techniques use the secondary
data to forecast some research variables such as sales, profit,
income, and so on.
 After identifying the need of the secondary data, the researcher
has to decide whether an internal or external secondary data
source is to be used.
 Step 2: Utility of Internal Secondary
Data Sources for the Research Problem
 As a second step, a researcher has to examine the utility of
in-house secondary data in light of
 Objective
 Relevancy
 Accuracy
 Currency
 Authenticity
 Dependability
 action ability
 Step 3: Utility of External Secondary
Data Sources for the Research Problem
 As shown in Figure 4, the external secondary data should also be
tested for all the parameters as it is done for the internal
secondary data.
 In addition, the authenticity of the external secondary data
must also be tested, which was the matter of concern for the in-
house generated data.
 To address the issue of authenticity of the data, a researcher has
to determine “who” collected the data.
 Some research organizations, magazines, books, periodicals,
journals, and so on have got high reputation and credibility in
the society or concerned field. Government data sources are also
authentic.
 Step 4: Use External Secondary
Data for the Research Problem

 After qualifying the first three stages, a researcher finds himself

or herself in a comfortable stage to use the data, as he or she is
sure that the data are useful for the research problem and there
is no harm in using it as it has already been tested for all the
discussed parameters.
 These guidelines are followed only to use the secondary data
sources for a research purpose.
 The final decision is a matter of the researcher’s discretion.
 In most of the cases, it is noted that the researchers commonly
use it to explore the problem and develop insights in to it.