Northwest Airlines plans to make changes in its frequent-flier
Worldperks program. One of them is to discontinue discounts offered
for passengers who choose to redeem award miles during off-peak
periods. Before doing so,
Northwest wants to verify if this policy will discourage customers
from flying during off-peak periods. The company made a list
of all its flights on one day during an off-peak period,
and randomly selected 25 flights. All of the
Worldperks members on those flights were then asked whether they would
change their travel dates if the discount were discontinued.
(a)
State the target population.
(b)
State the frame and the sampling method used. Is the frame the same
as the target population? Do you think this will give a representative sample
from the target population?
How would you have selected a better sample?
(c)
Construct a short questionnaire that will help Northwest
assess the impact of the policy in discouraging customers
from flying during off-peak periods.
2.
The patient representative of Bronson Methodist Hospital wanted
to make sure that the hospital is providing good service to its
patients. He obtained a list of all people that have used
the hospital's services for the past year and conducted a phone
interview with every 8th person in the list.
(a)
State the target population.
(b)
State the sampling method used. Do you think this will give a representative sample?
How would you have selected a better sample?
(c)
Construct a short questionnaire that you think would provide
useful information about hospital services.
3.
Wendy's wants to find out whether moving from their current location
on West Michigan to Bernhard Center would capture more of the student market.
They plan to conduct an opinion survey from 50 students within the premises of the building.
(a)
State the target population.
(b)
How would you select the 50 students? Comment on any possible
nonrepresentativeness in your sample. (For example: Would
your selection method tend to include too many/few women from
among the target population?
How about undergraduates? Evening students? Foreign students? Faculty?)
(c)
Construct a short questionnaire that would help Wendy's make
a decision.
4.
Western Herald takes an interest in the opinion of WMU students
regarding the 2002 ENRON controversy. From each college, 10 students
were asked whether
campaign contributions was a factor in the Enron failure.
(a)
Describe the target population.
(b)
State the sampling method used. How would you select the 10 students
from each college?
Do you think this will give a representative sample?
(c)
Construct a short questionnaire for the Herald.
5.
Gartner Research Company wants to compare the consumer satisfaction
ratings of AOL (America Online) as an internet service
provider(ISP) and an e-mail provider. From a list of online
consumers, he randomly chose 6,700 people to participate in the survey.
(a)
Describe the target population.
(b)
State the sampling method used. Do you think this will give a representative sample?
(c)
Construct a short questionnaire for the purpose.
6.
In the year 2002, US News Magazine printed the following survey question:
Should the government ban human cloning?
Yes: 1-900-193-0025
No: 1-900-193-0026
*50 cents per call
Would you consider the results of this opinion poll reliable? Explain.
7.
Radio stations often do audience research in order to estimate
the number and type of listeners (for advertising purposes)
and discover their preferences (for programming purposes).
Design (i) a sampling plan, and (ii) a 10-15 item questionnaire to
answer the following questions:
(a)
How large is the audience? (There are two measures here: the "average" size for
any point in time, and the "reach" or maximum number of people reached for a period of
say, 1 week)
(b)
What are the age, gender, education, and income profile of your audience?
(c)
What type of radio programs interests your audience most and least?
