Research Methods and Data Analysis Portfolio

“Over the past few years, the Employee Credit Union (ECU) has accumulated a large amount of surplus funds, which have been invested in certificates of deposit. It has also experienced a lower loan/share ratio then other credit unions of similar size. Because of these factors, the credit union’s average earnings on its investments have slowly declined and its profit margins have been squeezed” (Portfolio Assessment, 2004).

The market place of a company changes every few years, and therefore, it needs to be researched and analysed (Kotler, 2001). The ECU decided to conduct a research project to determine how the credit union can solve its problem. The aim of this paper is to:

• Evaluate the research objectives.
• Evaluate the research design in light of the stated research objectives.
• Use SPSS to obtain simple frequencies for the answers to each question.
• Use SPSS to perform appropriate cross-tabulations.
• Use SPSS to perform appropriate univariate and bivariate statistical tests after developing hypotheses for these particular tests.

The analysis discovers several weaknesses of the research process used by the credit union. Furthermore, many mistakes are found in the research design. The analysis of the survey identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the credit union, which can partly answer the research objectives. The main strengths of the union are its helpful employees, their ability to treat information confidentially, their prompt processing of loan applications, and the way the credit union is managed and operated. Identified weaknesses are the level of the loan rates, the usefulness of their services, and problems associated with the loan application form.