BUSINESS

RESEARCH AND
IT APPLICATIONS
ASSIGNMENT

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Mr.Amitava Chowdhury Kripa
MFM-1st Sem
MFM/18/407
 SCALING METHODS
Companies use different methods to assess customer satisfaction,
happiness and other critical aspects of the sales process. Large
organizations often employ scaling techniques, which measure consumer
views, in market research. Their role is to determine how customers feel
about a particular product, what features they are looking for or why they
dislike a specific item.

Nominal
Nominal scales are used for labelling variables, without
any quantitative value. “Nominal” scales could simply be called “labels. A
good way to remember all of this is that “nominal” sounds a lot like
“name” and nominal scales are kind of like “names” or labels.

Ordinal
With ordinal scales, it is the order of the values is what’s important and
significant, but the differences between each one is not really known.
Ordinal scales are typically measures of non-numeric concepts like
satisfaction, happiness, discomfort, etc.

Interval
Interval scales are numeric scales in which we know not only the order,
but also the exact differences between the values. Interval scales are nice
because the realm of statistical analysis on these data sets opens up.

Ratio
A ratio scale is the most informative scale as it tends to tell about the
order and number of the object between the values of the scale. They tell
us about the order, the exact value between units, and they also have an
absolute zero–which allows for a wide range of both descriptive and
inferential statistics to be applied.
 RATIO SCALE : DEFINITION

Ratio scale is a type of variable measurement scale which is quantitative in

nature. Ratio scale allows any researcher to compare the intervals or
differences. Ratio scale is the 4th level of measurement and possesses a
zero point or character of origin. This is a unique feature of ratio scale. For
example, the temperature outside is 0-degree Celsius. 0 degree doesn’t
mean it’s not hot or cold, it is a value.

Following example of ratio level of measurement to help understand the

scale better:

Please select which age bracket do you fall in?

 Below 20 years
 21-30 years
 31-40 years
 41-50 years
 50 years and above

Ratio scale has most of the characteristics of the other three variable
measurement scale i.e., nominal, ordinal and interval. Nominal variables
are used to “name,” or label a series of values. Ordinal scales provide a
sufficiently good amount of information about the order of choices, such
as one would be able to understand from using a customer satisfaction
survey. Interval scales give us the order of values and also about the ability
to quantify the difference between each one. Ratio scale helps to
understand the ultimate-order, interval, values, and the true zero
characteristic is an essential factor in calculating ratios.

The most common examples of ratio scale are height, money, age, weight
etc. With respect to market research, the common examples that are
observed are sales, price, number of customers, market share etc.
 CHARACTERISTICS

1. Ratio scale, as mentioned earlier has an absolute zero characteristic. It

has orders and equally distanced value between units. The zero point
characteristic makes it relevant or meaningful to say, “One object has
twice the length of the other” or “is twice as long.”

2. Ratio scale doesn’t have a negative number, unlike interval scale

because of the absolute zero or zero point characteristic. To measure
any object on a ratio scale, researchers must first see if the object meets
all the criteria for interval scale plus has an absolute zero characteristic.

3. Ratio scale provides unique possibilities for statistical analysis. In ratio

scale, variables can be systematically added, subtracted, multiplied and
divided (ratio). All statistical analysis including mean, mode, and median
can be calculated using ratio scale. Also, chi-square can be calculated on
ratio scale variable.

4. Ratio scale has ratio scale units which have several unique and useful
properties. One of them is they allow unit conversion. Take an example
of calculation of energy flow. Several units of energy occur like Joules,
gram-calories, kilogram-calories, British thermal units. Still more units of
energy per unit time (power) exist kilocalories per day, litres of oxygen
per hour, ergs, and Watts.
 EXAMPLES
1. What is your height in feet and inches?

 Less than 5 feet.

 5 feet 1 inch – 5 feet 5 inches
 5 feet 6 inches- 6 feet
 More than 6 feet

2. What is your weight in kgs?

 Less than 50 kgs

 51- 70 kgs
 71- 90 kgs
 91-110 kgs
 More than 110 kgs

3. How much time do you spend daily watching television?

 Less than 2 hours

 3-4 hours
 4-5 hours
 5-6 hours
 More than 6 hours

Let us take the example of speed to understand this scale better.

Physics defines speed as speed is the distance travelled per unit time. Here
the unit for time can be kept constant and a unit for distance travelled can
vary, for example, can be in kilometres or miles which means 20 km/hour
is equivalent to 12.43 mph.

If you have seen cars in Canada, the speedometer in the car has both miles
and km on it.
 ADVANTAGES

 A ratio scale has a point zero characteristic, where the value of the
variable has no value at all. Weight, height etc. can be calculated on ratio
scale because they have a real zero value. However, the temperature
cannot be measured on this scale because zero degrees Celsius doesn’t
mean there is no cold or heat for that matter. But most of the scientific
variables can be measured on a ratio scale.

 Point zero is an essential characteristic to measure a ratio between any

two variables because in the absence of zero there is no ratio. So
without a zero would it make any sense to say, “Tom is driving at a speed
of 100 km/hour, which is double the speed at which Thelma is driving,
which is 50 Km/hr?”

 This scale is used to calculate all the scientific variables. In fact, in the
absence of a ratio scale, scientific variables cannot be measured.