Question

Theoretical question:

What is the Research Purpose, Objective, and Design?

Also: What is the sampling method & size, data collection method as well as data analysis & Presentation?

The American Conservatory theater, a major repertory theater located in San Francisco, was completing its tenth season. The management team at ACT decided to conduct a major research study, intended to help their planning effort. A questionnaire was deceloped and mailed to their approximately 9,000 season subscribers. A return rate of 40% was obtained. A sample of 982 of these turned questionnaires was selected for analysis.

One of the major interest ACT management was in developing an understanding of the dynamics of the process whereby individuals became ACT subscriber. To assist in this process, whereby individuals became ACT suscribers. To assist in this this process, the sample was divided into four different groups according to their behavior pattern over the 5 seasons.

1. Continual subscriber (32%)- subscribed all 10 seasons

2. Gradual 31%- one or more seasons of attendance followed by becoming a suscriber

3. Sudden 21%- became a subscriber without attending prior performance

4. miscellaneous patterns 21%

The existence of a substantial "sudden subscriber" group was surprising and ran counter to conventional belief among theater managers that people were first enticed to attend a few performances at a particular theater and only after they had some positive experiences with this theater would they become suscribers.

The next step in the research study was to attempt to identify characteristics of the continual, gradual, and sudden subscriber groups that might be of use in understanding the segment differences and as inputs in the development of audience building and retention programs. Five variables appeared to be useful in this regard.

1. Years resident in the San Francisco Bay Area, measured on a scale ranging from 1= two years or less to 5= more than 20 years.

2 Age of suscribers, measured on a scale ranging from 1=25 years old or less to 5= more than 65 years old.

3.Household income, measured on a scale ranging from 1=50,000 per year.

4. whether the subscriber spend more than 20 hours each week watching TV, measured as a dummy variable: 1 if yes, 0 ifno

5. attendence at 6 other institutions that is ballet, civic light, opera, DeYoung museum, museum of modern art, opera, and symphony. The attendance score is the number of the six different activities that the respondent attended at least once in the previous year

Answer 1

The American Conservatory Theater(ACT) conducted a research with some objective and purpose in mind. The details related to the research are as follows:

• Research Objective: The American Conservatory Theater(ACT) wants to help and improve their planning effort related to the subscriptions that they have or receive.
• Research Purpose: The American Conservatory Theater(ACT) management wants to develop an understanding of the dynamics of the process whereby individuals become ACT subscribers. They also want to assist in the process through which individuals become ACT subscribers.
• Research Design: The design mainly comprises of a questionnaire that will be distributed among the season subscribers and from the sample selected out of the total data collected, further analysis was carried.

• The sampling that has been used in the given data is a survey sampling method. Out of 9,000 mails sent, only 3,600(40% * 9000) individuals replied with questionnaires and out of that only 982 were selected. Thus the sample size of the data is 982.
• The data collection method used is a primary data collection method and to further classify, it is a quantitative data collection method since it involves first hand collection of info from individuals in the form of questions and has not been collected from some already collected data.

• Data Analysis: The data that was collected showed some results as mentioned below:

1. The 21% existence of the "sudden subscribers" group came as a surprising element to the management and they concluded that the belief that they had was not true. They believed that it is not always that the people first go to attend performances at few theaters and after having some positive experience would they choose one to subscribe. There can thus be some individuals who can subscribe suddenly.
2. The managers also want to identify the characteristics of different type of subscribers that will be useful in understanding the segment differences and also as inputs in the development of audience building and retention programs. The team found five variables useful in this analysis and the variables vary as age, income, time spend in watching TV, years of residence etc.

• Data Presentation:

Table 1: TYPE OF SUBSCRIBERS

CATEGORY	PERCENTAGE OF SUBSCRIBERS
Continual(All 10 seasons)	32
Gradual(1 or more seasons followed by subscriber)	31
Sudden(Became subscriber without attending prior event)	21
Miscellaneous	21

Table 2: CHARACTERISTICS OF SUBSCRIBERS

Type of Character Scale Allotted Years of residence in the San Francisco Bay area 1=2 years or less ----5= more than 20 years Age 1=25 years or less -----5=more than 65 years Household Income 1=50,000 per year Whether one spends more than 20 hours each week watching TV 1= yes 0= no Attendance at other activities Number of activities that respondent attended at least once in previous year