3. Although the proposed sampling plan is appropriate for data collection, but a few modifications need to be made.

The proposed sample plan is over defined, as many objects in the population might not meet the research objective. For example, among these universities/colleges, many will be providing specialization options to its students. Thus we cant expect a graduate, who has done specialization in Finance or Accounting to take up a retailing job. Also, picking 20 universities out of 1000 wont be a true representative as the ratio of selection is 1:50. So we can pick 50 universities, thus downsizing the ratio to 1:20.

The sample plan we propose is a modification of the one proposed in case. It is: We will first obtain a list of all universities/colleges in USA that have a 4 yr business degree program. We expect there will be approx. 1000 such universities/colleges. We will pick a systematic random sample of 50 universities from this listing. For example we need 50 universities, so we will pick every 20th university on the list. If we pick #20, the next we will pick is #40, then #60 and so on. We will then obtain the database of students pursuing either a general, a retailing or marketing degree (even HR could be considered). From these databases, 20 students will be chosen at random. Appropriate adjustments need to be made about selecting an equal proportion of males and females. In total, we would chose 20 students from each of the 50 colleges/universities (10 males and 10 females). Thus, we could obtain an adequate and unbiased sample of 1000 business school senior students for a telephone survey.

4. Telephone surveys has the ability to generate results that are representative to research objectives. With more than 90% of households having phones (US Communications Census, 2012), telephone surveys are a good means of conducting research. Several key advantages of conducting telephone surveys, include: The sample will yield appropriate results as almost 90% of US households having phones. Thus, the surveyor enjoys a large-scale accessibility through telephone surveys. Telephone surveys are crucial for interviewing difficult to reach respondents. Thus, they are deemed more productive and yield a better response rate. A telephone interview is a live interview, so the surveyor can thoroughly understand what the respondent actually means. He/she can gain a better understanding by interpreting their responses to open-ended questions. Phone interviews can also be recorded, which enables the analyst to observe and analyze the behavior or attitude of the respondents. Although there are many key advantages to telephone surveys, there are disadvantages too. These are: Telephone surveys are time-constrained interviews. These may interrupt the personal time of the respondents. The respondents can easily terminate the interviews. Any respondent, who is not in a mood to talk or finds the call useless can easily hang up the phone, thus terminating the interview. There could be a possible response bias, as all respondents wont reply the same way. Even the surveyor cannot conduct the interview in the same manner with each respondent.

Telephoning 1000 people is a time-consuming task. As the surveyor will have to call each and every person, of which some might pick at first attempt and some might not, a lot of time is needed. Also, each call needs to be of at least 5-10 minutes to get appropriate responses.

Telephoning 1000 people for a survey is deemed to be appropriate, but there are some disadvantages to it as mentioned above. So, randomly calling 1000 people can be considered appropriate on the condition that time is not a constraint. However, since the research agenda is to reach a diverse population throughout the US, telephone surveys are the best and most appropriate option.