thinkPhD

I have collected many websites over my journey that have helped me through some tough stats problems, data collection, etc. Here are a few that may help as well:

Alan Reifman’s Collection of Practical Statistics Resources

David Ritchie’s Data Analysis page

David Ritchie’s Data Display page

Application of Statistics in Educational Research (ASER)

Is that an Assumption or a Condition?

Daniel Arkkelin’s textbook “Using SPSS to Understand Research and Data Analysis”

Companion Website to Andy Field’s textbook “Discovering Statistics Using SPSS, 3rd Edition”

StatPages
StatPages Free Statistical Software

SPSS On-Line Training Workshop

Philip B. Stark’s SticiGui

Glossary of Statistical Terms

Statnotes: Topics in Multivariate Analysis by G. David Garson

Laura Kazan’s SurveyMonkey to SPSS and Excel

The end of data collection is near as I sent out my last invitations today. I plan to close the survey on July 31. I have been playing around with the data collected so far and thinking about the conclusions that are forming.

I am very excited about my research and hope that it will give some guidance in strategic initiatives. It would be fantastic if all businesses included social and environmental initiatives in their annual planning. Awareness is certainly needed as well as incorporating these criteria into contracts, budgets, and other activities. Ultimately, sustainability includes achieving responsible growth for the business and for society, in such a way that activities do not reduce the ability of future generations to survive.

~~ Wisdom today pays off in a more sustainable tomorrow! ~~

Now to step down from my soapbox, I am looking at how others have presented MANOVA data and observations. This morning, I have been reading about missing values and how to handle this during analysis. Dr. M had a “first look” at my dissertation manuscript (DM) this week without the analysis chapters, and he found no significant issues. It is funny how I miss a misspelled word even after reading my DM a hundred times! Dr. M is a very good proofreader. Some of the dissertations that I have been reading have spelling or missed punctuation, and I certainly do not want any of that in my paper!!

I have to take a fourth dissertation course (DIS9324B) and that starts on August 8. I hope to work on analysis in August, and start the committee reviews in September. This course ends October 31 – keep your fingers crossed for me that I can complete all the work and defend before then!!

It’s very hot here in Virginia and the pool looks blue and cool. Husband and I will enjoy that later today after the sun begins to move out of the middle of the sky.

This weekend, in addition to sending out more survey invitations, I also worked on updating my DP (dissertation proposal) to turn it into a DM (dissertation manuscript). One of the first things was to change tenses from future to past, as in “the survey will be sent” to “the survey was sent.” I also worked on the dreaded table of contents (TOC) to add Chapter 4: Findings (Results, Evaluation of Findings, Summary) and Chapter 5: Implications, Recommendations, and Conclusions (Implications, Recommendations, Conclusions). Of course, I do not have the information that I need yet to work on these chapters, but I like to build the skeleton and then fill in the rest. I try to stay organized in my writing and research (even though I can’t seem to keep an organized desk).

This afternoon, I was trying to get the DM wording right regarding the issues I am having with data collection – I am trying not to be negative or sound disappointed, but simply factual. I will keep at this until I get enough surveys!! My husband and the Post Office Lady are becoming best of friends. We have bought so many stamps, ink, and mailed so many letters and postcards! We have a rural post office so everything is sorted by hand. The Post Office Lady likes that we are upping her mail count because the government is threatening to close many rural post offices, but I am sure that she groans when she sees Husband come in with his bundle of mail.

Husband and I swam a little in the pool this afternoon, and he got lobster-red on his shoulders. Ouch! I also Skyped for the first time; Daughter #1 just got an iPhone. There is a delay with Skype so we actually talked over each other a couple of times, but I think we will get the hang of it. Later on, the Internet connection got slow and I had to call Hughesnet. The tech rep walked me through changing some settings and I am able to stay connected longer. Now you are all caught up on thinkPhD’s exciting life!

I chose to use MANOVA (multivariate analysis of variance) for my dissertation study to find out if those firms engaging in public sustainability reporting have different purchasing social responsibility (PSR) strategies from those that do not publically report. MANOVA is a multivariate analysis tool used to analyze data that with one or more independent variables on two or more dependent variables. The independent variable I am using is participation in public sustainability reporting, and the dependent variables are the dimensions or constructs of PSR, which include concerns for diversity, the environment, human rights, philanthropy/community, and safety.

I have seen this example illustration of MANOVA several times: If we wanted to see if a new teaching style is better strategy to teach reading, we might want to look the values of reading scores, student satisfaction, grades in other classes, etc. These are the dependent variables, and teaching style is the independent variable. Rather than performing ANOVA multiple times, MANOVA allows hypothesis testing (Ha there is no change, and Ho there is a change) on all variables at one time. MANOVA will tell us if the new teaching style is making a difference in scores, student satisfaction, grades in other classes, etc.

Back to my dissertation….I have read articles that seem to indicate that firms reporting publically are somehow better at sustainable actions than those that do not report. So my hypothesis is that there is no difference in dimensions of PSR, and the alternate hypothesis is that there is a difference in dimensions of PSR. So essentially I am asking if those who talk about what they are doing are any different from those that do not!

I sound like a broken record! Here is the issue, I have sent out over 1,000 invitations, posted links in relevant places, and yet I do not have enough participation for adequate power…

An a priori power analysis was conducted using G*Power 3.1 software to determine the appropriate sample size for the study. Assuming a medium effect size f2 (V) of 0.25, a two-tailed test, an alpha significance level of 0.05, a power of 0.80, two groups, and 6 response variables, at least 62 surveys must be included in the study using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).

…I need at LEAST 62 and I have about HALF that number of completed surveys. I am even offering a $100 Visa gift card! I have even written to various supply chain groups and asked if I could post on their websites or write a blog post but I do not have replies yet. I am beginning to wonder if people do not read their mail? A friend suggested that many companies have mail rooms and sometimes mail is presorted and thrown in the trash; I find that hard to believe, but what happened to all my postcards and letters?

So, if you are a purchasing manager in a publically traded firm, will you PLEASE take a few minutes and complete this online survey? THANK YOU!!