Enterprise response to ubiquitous information access and real-time communications

¶ … Quality Evaluation

Explain how each of the five evaluation factors for a secondary source influences its management decision- making value.

The globalizing nature of our economy has foisted certain challenges upon business managers and organizational decision-makers. Particular among them is the need to remain abreast of shifting research, newly advanced findings and cutting-edge market theories. In order to do this, an organization's research department must remain steeped in an array of secondary sources with proper discretion of data quality. The Five Evaluation Functions of Purpose, Scope, Authority, Audience and Format help to avail this discretion.

First and foremost, it is recognized that qualifying the credibility of secondary sources is essential to meaningful decision-making. According to Wang et al. (1995), "use of the term 'data manufacturing' encourages researchers and practitioners alike to seek out cross-disciplinary analogies that can facilitate the transfer of knowledge from the field of product quality to the field of data quality." (p. 624). Thus, where authority is concerned, the authoring individuals, journals and organizations producing a piece of research will often be essential to data quality. It is important to engage in the transfer of knowledge by seeking out data according to its release by recognized authorities within the field.

The scope of the research will also be essential, with the inclusion or exclusion of certain variables or factors often reflecting a bias or objectivity that can be determinant of data quality. So is this the case with purpose, which can often be gleaned from an abstract or a thesis statement. It is necessary for the researcher to be able to identify the purpose of the source both in terms of its objectivity and its consistency or divergence from the researcher's own purposes. Audience will often be directly connected to purpose. It is necessary to determine the target of the author or the broader target of a journal or publication containing the secondary source in question. This will often lend clues as to the intention of the author and will help to determine whether the source is intended as scholarly, journalistic or editorial in nature. Format is evaluated in conjunction with the question answered here below.

2. What are the problems of data quality must researchers face?

Conducting research through a process of data-gathering requires a discerning eye for credibility as indicated here above. This is especially so where secondary sources are combined. But today, with the increasingly democratic nature of the growing knowledge economy, researchers face a constant problem of data quality assurance. As the text by Nannapaneni (2008) remarks, the inception of electronic media into the research forum has prompted a need for greater discretion when gathering information from secondary sources. Of the five evaluation factors then, it is perhaps format which provokes the greatest modern challenge. According to Nannapaneni, "the factors of the format may change from source to source but relate the information presented and find a specific piece of information. For example the format of an electronic source or web site is generally related to design and designers need to contend with a variety of internet browsers, individual computers preferences."