My research is based on IT and Knowledge Management in Tour Operations. I have got a few issues in determining the sample size.I have got the list of the tour operating firms in the selected cities (say 50). I am going for a stratified random sampling and have decided to take 5 firms from each city.How do I determine the sample size when total employee size is unknown?
You need to consult a reference on sampling i.e. the chapter on stratified sampling. I would suggest the book in the link below. It may also be possible to get this information online. Try Googleing Stratified sample sample size. The link to the book is:
https://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Survey-Sampling-Richard-Scheaffer/dp/0840053614/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525194394&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=Schaeffer+mendenhall+Elementary+Sampling
Best wishes, David Booth Feel free to contact me with questions.
Sir,
I would like to thank you for the reply.
The issue with my study is I have a count of number of the tour operating firms in a city and it's a bit difficult to get the employee size of each firm. In my study, I have taken 5 firms out of 50 after a few exclusion criteria. My question is, if i find out the employee size of those 5 firms, can that size be taken as my 'sample frame' ?Can I further go with collecting random sample from that selected 'sample frame'?
Dear Vaishnavi,
it is a difficult question. Perhaps you find a similar question in literature?
After this, you couls take these data for the sample size calculation. Another way might be, to define the number which wouls be senseful and based on this assumption to perform the sample size calculation.
Good luck!
Best
Tanja
Ah, I understand now. You are not proposing a stratified sample(take all firms and sample each) but rather a two stage cluster sample (randomly choose 5 firms) and sample those 5 firms at random. The structure is different. Start by a Google search on 2 stage cluster sample. Read that. If you have questions contact me. All of these differences are very important. You will find a formula for estimating sample size for this design. Best, David Booth
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