Application of Spearmen Correlation

Data Analysis and Presentation (BM - 4152)

Group No: 06
Year IV semester I
Department of Business Management
Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka
Acknowledgment
Successfully completion of any types of report requires helps from a numbers of persons. We

have obtained the help from different people for the preparation of this report. Now, this is a

little effort to show our deep gratitude to that helpful persons.

Firstly, we would like to express our deepest thanks to our subject lecture Ms.A.C. Jayathilake

for her vital and marvelous support, guidance and encouragement. This report would not be

successful without her support.

At last but not the least we are thankful to all our colleagues who have been always helping and

encouraging us throughout this report. We have no valuable words to express our thanks, but our

heart is still full of the favors received from every person.

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Abstract

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................5
Partial Correlation........................................................................................................................5
Person Correlation........................................................................................................................5
Spearman Correlation..................................................................................................................5
Primary Data Analysis.....................................................................................................................6
Research Objectives.....................................................................................................................6
Secondary Data Analysis...............................................................................................................10
Objectives...................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
Appendix........................................................................................................................................14
Group Members.............................................................................................................................17

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Introduction

The purpose of carrying out correlation coefficient (r) analysis is to explore the associative

relationship between independent and dependent variable[ CITATION Sen18 \l 1033 ]. In fact,

researcher cannot prove that one variable cause a changes in another variable if there is no

connection between two variables analyzed. The correlation coefficient(r) vary from -1 to +1. If

there is no correlation between two variables, correlation coefficient denoted by the “0”.

Furthermore, if the correlation coefficient value indicates in between “0 and +1” it considers as

positive association as well as “r” value demonstrates in between “-1 to 0” considers as negative

association between two variables. It is categorized as linear (Person correlation) and non-linear

(Spearman and Kendall correlations).

Partial Correlation
“Partial correlation is the measure of association between two variables, while controlling or

adjusting the effect of one or more additional variables” Partial Correlation useful for isolating

the unique relationship between 2 variables when other variables are ruled out [ CITATION Lev03 \l

1033 ]

Person Correlation
Person’s correlation coefficient is the statistic that measure the statistical relationship, or

association, between two variables and it uses two type of qualitative variables. namely, discrete

and continuous data.

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Spearman Correlation
The spearman correlation coefficient is the non-parametric version of the Pearson correlation

coefficient. It is applied only for qualitative data and both independent and dependent variable

should be ordinal.

Throughout this report, data was analyzed by only using spearman correlation
analysis.
Introduction to Data Set

This report consists with two type of data set to identify relationship between particular

variables. Researcher used primary data to analyze correlation by using Spearman’s Rank

Correlation.

Primary Data Analysis

The population of this study was undergraduate of faculty of management studies, faculty of

applied science and peoples who are living around the university who used social networking

sites. Researcher considered 60 social networking sites users as a sample size to conduct the

study by using simple random sampling method. This questionnaire consists with to identify

common preference regarding seven social networking sites such as WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Viber,

IMO, Face Book, Instagram and Twitter

Research Objectives
 To identify whether there is a correlation between common preferences of

undergraduates of Faculty of Applied Sciences and Management Studies in

Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka with regards to 7 social networking sites.

 To identify whether there is a correlation between common preferences of

undergraduates of Faculty of Applied Sciences and people who are living around

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 the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka with regards to 7 social networking

sites.

 To identify whether there is a correlation between common preferences of

undergraduates of Faculty Management Studies and people who are living around

the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka with regards to 7 social networking

sites.

For the purpose of conducting Spearman correlation coefficient analysis, in the beginning,

researcher should clearly identify the Dependent variable and Independent variable of the data

set.

 Dependent Variable - Common preference

 Independent Variable – Seven social networking sites

To apply correlation analysis, the dependent variable should follow normal distribution. Then

researcher should conduct normality test regarding the common preference of the undergraduates

of the faculty of the management studies, applied sciences and people who are around the

university (Appendix - A).

Variables P value Correlation

Common preference of undergraduates of the 0.036 0.786
Faculty of the Management studies and Applied
sciences
Table 1: Correlation between Common preference of undergraduates of the Faculty of the
Management Studies and Applied sciences with regards to the 7 social networking sites.

Source: Primary data collect from final year Undergraduates of Faculty of Management Studies
and Applied Sciences in Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, 2020

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According to Table 2, since the output p.value (0.036) is less than the critical p value of (0.05)

with the 95% level of confidence there are enough evidence to reject H o (There is no association

between common preference of the undergraduates of Faculty of Management Studies and

Applied Sciences in Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka with regards to the 7 social

networking sites). Therefore, it can be concluded as there is an association between common

preference of the undergraduates of the Faculty of Management Studies and Faculty of Applied

Sciences in Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka with regards to the 7 social networking sites.

According to the “r” value (0.786) of Spearman correlation analysis, there is a high positive

correlation between common preference of undergraduates of the Faculty of the Management

Studies and Applied Sciences with regards to the 7 social networking sites.

Furthermore, researcher identified common preference of undergraduates of the Faculty of

Applied Sciences and people who are living around the university (Appendix- B).

Variables P value Correlation

Common preferences of undergraduates of Faculty 0.253 0.500
of Applied Sciences and people who are living
around the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka
Table3: Correlation between Common preference of undergraduates of the Faculty of Applied
Sciences and people who are living around the university with regards to the 7 social networking
sites.

Source: Primary Data Collect from final year Undergraduates of faculty of Applied Sciences and
people who are living around the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka.

According to Table 3, since output p value (0.253) is greater than the critical p value of (0.05)

with the 95% level of confidence there aren’t enough evidence to reject Ho (There is no

association between common preference of the undergraduates of Faculty of Applied Sciences

and people who are living around the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka with regards to 7
8
social networking sites). Therefore, it can be concluded as there is no association between

common preference of the faculty of Applied Sciences undergraduates and people who are living

around the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka with regards to the 7 social networking sites.

In addition to that researcher tried to identify association between Common preference of

undergraduates of the Faculty of the Management studies and Applied sciences with regards to

the 7 social networking sites (Appendix - B).

Table 4: Correlation between Common preference of undergraduates of the Faculty of the

Management studies and Applied sciences with regards to the 7 social networking sites.

Variables P value Correlation

Common preferences of undergraduates of Faculty of 0.432 0.357
Management Studies and people who are living
around the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka
Source: Primary Data Collect from final year Undergraduates of faculty of Management Studies

and people who are living around the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka.

According to Table 4, since output P value (0.432) is greater than the critical p value of (0.05)

with the 95% level of confidence there are not enough evidence to reject Ho (There is no

association between common preference of the undergraduates of Faculty of Management

Studies and people who are living around the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka with

regards to 7 social networking sites). Therefore, it can be concluded as there is no association

between common preference of the faculty of Applied Sciences undergraduates and people who

9
are living around the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka with regards to the 7 social

networking sites.

Secondary Data Analysis

The population of this study was 14/15 and 15/16 undergraduates of department of business

management, faculty of management studies in Sabaragamuwa university of Sri Lanka, who

sited the exam of year I semester I regarding the subject of business communication. Researcher

considered 114 undergraduates as a sample size to conduct the study. This data was collected by

using past result sheets of the students.

Objectives
 To find out whether there is an association between the exam results of 14/15 and 15/16

undergraduates of department of business management, faculty of management studies

regarding the subject of business communication.

In the beginning the researcher identified independent and dependent variables of the

secondary data set.

 Independent Variable - Subject grades

 Dependent Variable – overall performance regarding the subject of Business

communication

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 When data set is ordered according to the grades received to 14/15 and 15/16 batches

regarding the subject of business communication there is a large number of tied ranks. In that

situation researcher used Kendall’s rank correlation instead of Spearman’s correlation

because of the tied ranks. To identify association between the variables, researcher used “P”

value of the Kendall’s rank correlation analysis (Appendix - C).

Table 5: correlation between the exam results of 14/15 and 15/16 undergraduates of department

of business management, faculty of management studies regarding the subject of business

communication.

Variables P value Correlation

Overall performance of 14/15 and 15/16 0.751 -0.087
undergraduates of department of Business
Management, faculty of Management studies
regarding the subject of Business Communication.

Source: Secondary data Department of Business Management Sabaragamuwa University of Sri

Lanka

According to Table 5, since output P value (0.751) is greater than the critical p value of (0.05)

with the 95% level of confidence there are not enough evidence to reject Ho (There is no

association between the exam results of 14/15 and 15/16 undergraduates of department of

business management, faculty of management studies regarding the subject of business

communication). Therefore, it can be concluded as there is no association between the exam

results of 14/15 and 15/16 undergraduates of department of business management, faculty of

management studies regarding the subject of business communication.

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Conclusion
Researcher analysis primary and secondary data to find out Spearman correlation coefficient.

Primary data set consists with common preferences of social network sites. There is a significant

association between undergraduates of faculty of management studies and applied sciences whist

there is no association between people who are living around the sabaragamuwa university and

undergraduates of management students. as well as after analyzing secondary data it highlighted

there is no association between 14/15 batch and 15/16 batch undergraduates of department of

business management of faculty of management studies.

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References

Levin, R. I., & Rubin, D. S. (2003). STATISTICS FOR MANAGEMENT, Seventh Edition. New Delhi: Prentice
Hall of India.

Senthilnathan, S. (2018). Usefullness of corelation analysis . SSRN Electronic journal, 9.

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Appendix
Appendix – A1

Probability Plot of Undergraduates of Faculty of Management Studies

Normal
99
Mean 4
StDev 2.160
95 N 7
AD 0.133
90
P-Value 0.958
80
70
Percent

60
50
40
30
20

10
5

1
0 2 4 6 8 10
Undergraduates of Faculty of Management Studies

Appendix - A2

Probability Plot of Undergraduate of Applied Sciences

Normal
99
Mean 4
StDev 2.160
95 N 7
AD 0.133
90
P-Value 0.958
80
70
Percent

60
50
40
30
20

10

1
0 2 4 6 8 10
Ap

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Appendix - A3

Probability Plot of People around the Sabaragamuwa University

Normal
99
Mean 4
StDev 2.160
95 N 7
AD 0.133
90
P-Value 0.958
80
70
Percent

60
50
40
30
20

10
5

1
0 2 4 6 8 10
Villeges

Appendix - B: Correlation between Common preference of undergraduates of the Faculty of

Management Studies, Applied Sciences and people who are living around the university with
regards to the 7 social networking sites

Correlations

MS AP Villages
*
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .786 .357

MS Sig. (2-tailed) . .036 .432

N 7 7 7

Correlation Coefficient .786* 1.000 .500

Spearman's rho AP Sig. (2-tailed) .036 . .253

N 7 7 7

Correlation Coefficient .357 .500 1.000

Villages Sig. (2-tailed) .432 .253 .

N 7 7 7

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*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Appendix - C: Correlation between the exam results of 14/15 and 15/16 undergraduates of

department of business management, faculty of management studies regarding the subject of

business communication

Correlations

Batch_14 Batch_15

Correlation Coefficient 1.000 -.087

Batch_14 Sig. (2-tailed) . .751

N 9 9
Kendall's tau_b
Correlation Coefficient -.087 1.000

Batch_15 Sig. (2-tailed) .751 .

N 9 9
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 -.131

Batch_14 Sig. (2-tailed) . .737

N 9 9
Spearman's rho
Correlation Coefficient -.131 1.000

Batch_15 Sig. (2-tailed) .737 .

N 9 9

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Group Members

1 D.D.R. Jayathilaka 14/MS/027

2 W.K.A.S.H. Kuruppu 14/MS/044

3 H.M.N.S. Jayalath 14/MS/159

4 K.W.P.N. Kulathissa 14/MS/181

5 L.G.M. Priyabhashika 14/MS/240

6 W.M.N.D. Wijesekara 14/MS/285

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