Market Research On Stationeries And I.T Equipment Used By Kent Institute Students

Methodology

Education is one of the fundamental aspects in life today with which a lot of dreams of every individual and a country at large can be realized. It needs some tools in support to make it going. Stationeries are one of the tools that are important in each and every learning institution. They are the sources of references in the learning process for both learners and instructors. The purpose of this report therefore was to conduct the market research on the stationeries and I.T equipment used by the Kent Institute students in their daily activities in school. Some of the stationeries that were covered in the research were books, pens etc. and the I.T equipment included electronic scientific calculators and the professional software required by the students in various courses. The idea of starting stationery shop before it was manifested called for conducting market reserach. The research targeted the students learning in Kent institute that was of a population of about over 6000 students. In the lecture halls when the students attend the lessons, they would be in need of taking or making notes and doing all these will require them to have stationery materials. The relatively high population in the institution with the prospective buyers give hope of better performance of the business when it comes to existence Blackburn et al (2013). Though competition will be faced from other businesses of the like but supplying the materials in regards to the taste of the customers will help in boosting chances of the business survival Blocker et al (2011). As a result therefore, this report is seeking to answer formulated research questions and thus meeting the research objectives in response to the questions.

1. What is the most preferred pen color for use by the students?
2. Is there relationship existing between the course units and the number of pens used by the students in a semester?
3. Is there any relationship existing between the courses involving calculations and the number of books used per semester?

Response to the above research questions would lead to meeting the following specific research objectives;

1. To determine the most preferred pen ink color by the students in Kent institute.
2. To determine the relationship between the course units and the number of pens used by the students in the semester
3. To determine the relationship between the course involving calculations and the number of books used per semester by the students

In the survey, questionnaires were used to collect and gather data from a sample size of 20 respondents. The questionnaire was structured with a total of 10 questions asking for various responses. The types of questions that were used in structuring the questionnaire were closed ended questions. This type of questions was preferred due to their simplicity at the time of data analysis and reducing the data bulk as to when open ended questions were used Roberts et al (2014). They further make coding of the responses very easy and then the analysis Percy et al (2015). A total of 10 variables corresponding to the 10 questions were prepared as from the questionnaires. Variables such as Sex, Software etc. were nominal variables and Age, Units, number of pens etc. are the examples of scale measure variables. The targeted population in this report was about over 6000 students of Kent institute Australia. From the population, a sample size of only 20 participants was used. In relation to the targeted population, this sample size was small as compared to the appropriate and recommended number of respondents that was supposed to be 384. One of the advantages associated with small sample size is that it is less time consuming and less expensive too Marshall et al (2013). The participants were selected at random by applying the probabilistic methods i.e. simple random sampling method where equal number of male to that of female was sampled. Biasness is one of the practices that can affect the collected data which then had to be dealt with by all means possible by employing the probabilistic methods in selecting the participants. All the variables and the cases in the data set were as presented below;

Results

Sex	Age Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	Units	Book_size	Number_Books	Ink_color	Number_pens	Arithmetics	Calc_mathtables	Software
Female	21-23	3-6	A4 size	3-6	Blue	5-10	Yes	Yes	Yes
Male	21-23	>6	Letter size small	3-6	Black	>10	No	No	No
Male	18-20	3-6	A4 size	3-6	Blue	5-10	Yes	Yes	No
Female	24-26	>6	A4 size	>6	Green	5-10	No	No	Yes
Female	18-20	<3	Letter size small	3-6	Red	<5	Yes	Yes	Yes
Female	21-23	3-6	A4 size	>6	Blue	5-10	No	No	No
Male	<18	>6	A4 size	>6	Blue	5-10	Yes	Yes	Yes
Female	24-26	3-6	A5 size	>6	Black	5-10	No	No	Yes
Male	>26	3-6	Letter size small	3-6	Red	5-10	Yes	Yes	Yes
Male	24-26	>6	A4 size	>6	Blue	>10	No	No	No
Female	>26	<3	A4 size	3-6	Blue	<5	No	No	Yes
Male	18-20	3-6	A5 size	>6	Black	>10	Yes	Yes	Yes
Male	24-26	3-6	A4 size	>6	Green	5-10	No	No	Yes
Female	18-20	<3	Letter size small	3-6	Red	<5	Yes	Yes	Yes
Female	21-23	3-6	A4 size	>6	Blue	5-10	No	No	No
Male	18-20	>6	A4 size	>6	Blue	5-10	Yes	Yes	Yes
Female	24-26	3-6	A5 size	>6	Black	5-10	No	No	Yes
Male	>26	3-6	A5 size	3-6	Red	>10	Yes	Yes	Yes
Male	24-26	>6	A4 size	>6	Black	<5	No	No	Yes
Female	21-23	3-6	Letter size small	3-6	Green	5-10	Yes	Yes	Yes

Table 2: Sex of the respondents
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
	Male	10	50.0	50.0	50.0
Female	10	50.0	50.0	100.0
Total	20	100.0	100.0

The sampled students was made up of 50% of male students’ participants and 50% female students’ participants. This was one of the demographic information used in describing the participants.

Figure 1: Age of the sampled students

From the figure above, the students who were sampled had their ages varied as follows; those with their ages <18 years were represented by 5%, 18-20 years were represented by 25%, 21-23 years were represented by 25%, 24-26years were represented by 30% and lastly, the students who responded that their ages were >26 was represented by 15%.

Table 3: Number of units done
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
	<3	3	15.0	15.0	15.0
3-6	11	55.0	55.0	70.0
>6	6	30.0	30.0	100.0
Total	20	100.0	100.0

One of the questions provided on the questionnaire requested the participants to provide the number of units they were taking in their courses. In response to the question, 15% of the respondents responded that they were taking <3 units, the majority of the respondents represented by 55% responded that they were taking 3-6 units in their courses and the remaining proportion represented by 30% responded that they were taking >6 units in their courses.

Table 4: Number of pens used per semester
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
	<5	4	20.0	20.0	20.0
5-10	12	60.0	60.0	80.0
>10	4	20.0	20.0	100.0
Total	20	100.0	100.0

Being one of the stationeries that were aimed to be supplied in the business that was to be put up, number of pens that were being used by the students in a semester was recorded. 20% of the sampled students responded that they used <5 pens, 60% of the respondents responded that they used 5-10 pens in a semester and another 20% of the sampled students responded that they they would use >10 pens in a semester.

Table 5: Course involving arithmetic calculation
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
	Yes	10	50.0	50.0	50.0
No	10	50.0	50.0	100.0
Total	20	100.0	100.0

On the question whether the courses that were being taken by the sampled students involved calculations, 50% of the sampled students responded that their courses involved arithmetic calculations while another half (50%) responded that their courses did not involve arithmetic calculations.

Table 6: Number of books per semester
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
	3-6	9	45.0	45.0	45.0
>6	11	55.0	55.0	100.0
Total	20	100.0	100.0

Forty five percent of the sampled students responded that the number of books they used in a semester was 3-6 exercise books whereas 55% of the sampled students responded that they used >6 exercise books in a semester.

Table 7: Pen Ink color
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
	Blue	8	40.0	40.0	40.0
Black	5	25.0	25.0	65.0
Red	4	20.0	20.0	85.0
Green	3	15.0	15.0	100.0
Total	20	100.0	100.0

Blue pen ink color became the most preferred among the sampled students as re[resented by 40%, black was preferred by 25% of the sampled students, red was preferred by 20% and then green pen was preferred by 15% of the sampled students.

Fifty percent male students and 50% female students were randomly selected to participate in the process of market research. The spread of age in the sample showed that most of the students’ age was between 24 and 26 years and very few with ages above or lower than that age. Number of unit that were taken by the majority of the sampled students was between 3 and 6 units. This was important as it would be used to predict the number of exercise books a student will buy in a semester given that they were taking a certain number of units. In consideration to decision making of the business goods supply in the stationery, writing material like books and pens were asked for where the majority of the sampled students were using 5-10 pens per semester and they preferred blue pens to other colors with over six books. Preferences of the majority is important in making decisions. Among other things that were ask for but not tested in the hypothesis were the inclusion of calculators and other professional software if at all they were required.

Table 8: Correlations
	units	number_pens	arithmetics	Number_books
units	Pearson Correlation	1	.484*	.229	.515*
Sig. (2-tailed)		.031	.331	.020
N	20	20	20	20
number_pens	Pearson Correlation	.484*	1	.000	.159
Sig. (2-tailed)	.031		1.000	.503
N	20	20	20	20
arithmetics	Pearson Correlation	.229	.000	1	.503*
Sig. (2-tailed)	.331	1.000		.024
N	20	20	20	20
Number_books	Pearson Correlation	.515*	.159	.503*	1
Sig. (2-tailed)	.020	.503	.024
N	20	20	20	20
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

There was a positive correlation between number of units taken and number of pens used by students in a semester as represented by 0.484. A fairly strong positive correlation was registered between the courses involving calculations and the number of books used in a semester as represented by r of 0.503. It can as well be seen that there was no relationship at all between the courses involving arithmetic calculations with the number of pens used by the students in a semester.

Conclusion

To conclude therefore, from the correlation tests conducted, the result showed that there was a relationship existing between the numbers of course units that were being undertaken by the students per semester and the number of pens used in the same semester. Additionally, a relatively strong positive correlation between courses that involved calculations and the number of books used in a semester. This thus showed that there was a considerable relationship between the two variables that should be considered when placing order for supply of stationery materials. Lastly, the most preferred pen ink color was found out to be blue over other pen ink colors.

References

Blackburn, R.A., Hart, M. and Wainwright, T., 2013. Small business performance: business, strategy and owner-manager characteristics. Journal of small business and enterprise development, 20(1), pp.8-27.

Blocker, C.P., Flint, D.J., Myers, M.B. and Slater, S.F., 2011. Proactive customer orientation and its role for creating customer value in global markets. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 39(2), pp.216-233.

Percy, W.H., Kostere, K. and Kostere, S., 2015. Generic qualitative research in psychology. The Qualitative Report, 20(2), p.76.

Roberts, M.E., Stewart, B.M., Tingley, D., Lucas, C., Leder?Luis, J., Gadarian, S.K., Albertson, B. and Rand, D.G., 2014. Structural Topic Models for Open?Ended Survey Responses. American Journal of Political Science,58(4), pp.1064-1082.

Marshall, B., Cardon, P., Poddar, A. and Fontenot, R., 2013. Does sample size matter in qualitative research?: A review of qualitative interviews in IS research. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 54(1), pp.11-22.