LO5

5.1

Internal source

This is information that comes from within an organisation. Examples include internal financial reports, such as the level of sales being made in different markets on the cost of running the transport fleet of Lorries or market analysis, which is an internally produced report into how international and national markets are faring.

External source

This is information that comes from outside the organisation. Examples include supplier price lists, which are lists of products and the price charged for them and financial reports from third party, which would have the same focus as internally produced financial reports, but would be by someone outside the organisation.

Primary data

This is data that you collect, rather than buy from a third party Examples include reports that have been created by employees, such as the result of a period of observation outside a cinema, counting how many males and females went in.

Secondary data

This is data that has been collected by others outside the organisation. Examples include survey results that have been collected for a different organisation (and usually for a different purpose) or factual information provided by third party, such as the prices charged by an organisation.

Qualitative data and quantitative data

The fundamental difference between these is that quantitative data is data that has been gathered by measurement, while qualitative is data that describes. An example of quantitative data would be the number of staff working in an organisation, whereas qualitative data would be their opinion about a new initiative.

Data	Qualitative	Quantitative
The colour of a car	yes
The number of blue cars sold last year		yes
Results of a questionnaire gathering data about age of students attending a college		yes
Results of a questionnaire gathering suggestions for a new design of eco-home	yes
The height of a building		yes
Do people like chocolate?	yes
How many people like chocolate?		yes