Five scenarios related to sampling are given below. You will be assigned one of these
scenarios based on the first letter of your last name.
First Letter of Last Name A-E
Scenario
1
F-J
2
K-O P-T U-Z
3
4
5
For your assigned scenario, indicate what would be the relevant population and the
most appropriate sampling design. Be sure to give the reasons for your answers.
Scenario 1: A medical inspector wants to estimate
the overall average monthly occupancy rates of the
cancer wards in 80 different hospitals that are
evenly located in the northwestern, southeastern,
central, and southern suburbs on New York City.
State the relevant population and the most
appropriate sampling design. Be sure to discuss the
reasons for your answers.
Scenario 2: A magazine article suggested that,
“Customers aged 35 to 44 will soon be the nation’s
biggest spenders, so advertisers must learn how to
appeal to this over-the-thrill crowd.” Suppose you
are an apparel manufacturer and this suggestion
appeals to you. State the relevant population and
the most appropriate sampling design. Be sure to
discuss the reasons for your answers.
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Scenario 3: The McArthur Company produces
special vacuum cleaners for conveniently cleaning
the inside of cars. About a thousand of these, with
stamped serial numbers, are produced every month
and stored serially in a stockroom. Once a month an
inspector does a quality control check on 50 of
these. When he certifies them as to quality, all 1000
units are released from the stockroom for sale. The
production and sales managers, however, are not
satisfied with the quality control check since, quite
often, many of the units sold are returned by
customers because of various types of defects. State
the relevant population and the most appropriate
sampling design for selecting the 50 units. Be sure
to discuss the reasons for your answers.
Scenario 4: A consultant had administered a
questionnaire to some 285 employees using a
simple random sampling procedure. As she looked
at the responses, she suspected that two questions
might not have been clear to the respondents. She
would like to know if her suspicion is well-founded.
State the relevant population and the most
appropriate sampling design. Be sure to discuss the
reasons for your answers.
Scenario 5: The executive board of a relatively small
university located in Europe wants to determine the
attitude of their students toward various aspects of
the university. The university, founded in 1928, is a
fully accredited government-financed university
with 11,000 students. The university specializes in
the social sciences and humanities and has five
facilities, six service departments, eight research
centers, and two graduate schools. The executive
board has asked you to come up with a sampling
plan. State the relevant population and the most
appropriate sampling design. Be sure to discuss the
reasons for your answers.
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Reference:
Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2013). Research methods for business: A skill building approach (6th
ed.) (pages 272-273 of chapter 13: Sampling). Chichester, United Kingdom: Wiley. ISBN:
978-1-119-94225-2.
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