International Marketing in Germany – From a cultural perspective

3.6.2
 
Reliability of the Study 
Reliability means the degree of authenticity in the survey. A high reliability implicate that 
there are few haphazard and systematic errors. It is necessary that the survey has a high 
reliability to be able to have a high validity, since if there are many errors we do not measure 
144
Dahmström, K., 
Från Datainsamling till Rapport, 
(2005), p. 334 
145
Chisnall, P., 
Marketing Research, 
(1997), p. 34 

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what we are supposed to measure.
146
In case of a high reliability, it should be possible to 
perform the same survey under same circumstances and get pretty much the same results.
147
The reliability of this study depends on how good we have performed the survey. As in all 
surveys, there may be a risk of systemic errors giving the study a lower reliability and hence a 
lower validity. However, we have tried to be accurate and to perform the entire research as 
well as possible.
3.6.3
 
Error Sources of the Study 
In a process from having a research problem to finding its results there are several different 
types of possible errors of which all leads to that the results doesn’t match the research 
problem (see figure 3.2). It is important to be aware of possible error sources in order to 
diminish them.
In the analysis of the research problem, there is a possibility of choosing the wrong purpose. 
However, the purpose of this thesis is within the given time frames carefully prepared and has 
been clearly stated throughout the thesis. In the process of specifying the research objectives, 
you can choose wrong contents and direction. Concerning this, we believe to have chosen the 
research areas properly in accordance to our purpose. Moreover, when determining the 
research design and data sources inference errors may be a problem, but we hope this risk to 
be low. Measurement problems may arise when collecting data (see below) and finally, there 
is a risk of processing and interpretation errors which we hope to have limited through a 
careful and extensive analysis.