For more than 50 years, The Harris Poll has conducted surveys using a representative sample of people in the United States. The surveys have been used to represent the opinions of people in the United States on many subjects, such as health, politics, the U.S. economy, and sports.

Since 1999, The Harris Poll has conducted an annual survey to measure the reputations of the most visible companies in the United States, as perceived by U.S. adults. The Harris Poll uses a sample of about 23,000 U.S. adults for the survey. The survey respondents rate companies according to 20 attributes that are classified into six categories:

(1) social responsibility, 

(2) vision and leadership, 

(3) financial performance,

(4) products and services, 

(5) emotional appeal, 

(6) workplace environment. 

This information is used to determine the reputation of a company as Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, Very Poor, or Critical. The reputations (along with some additional information) of 10 companies are shown in the table.

1. What percentage of the total number of U.S. adults did The Harris Poll sample for its survey? (Assume the total number of U.S. adults is 242.8 million.)

2. Identify any column in the table with data at the nominal level.

3. Identify any column in the table with data at the ordinal level. Describe two ways that the data can be ordered.

4. Identify any column in the table with data at the interval level. How can these data be ordered?

5. Identify any column in the table with data at the ratio level.

6. What decisions can be made on the basis of The Harris Poll survey that measures the reputations of the most visible companies in the United States?

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Reputations of 10 Companies in the U.S. Year Company Company Name Formed Reputation Industry Number of Employees Amazon.com 1994 Excellent Retail 230,800 Apple, Inc. 1977 Excellent Computers and peripherals 116,000 Netflix, Inc. 1999 Very Good Internet television 4,700 The Kraft Heinz Co. 2015 Very Good Food products 41,000 Facebook, Inc. 2004 Good Internet 17,048 Ford Motor Co. 1903. Good Automotive 201,000 Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. 1993. Fair Restaurant 64,570 Comcast Corp. 1963. Poor Cable television 136,000 Exxon Mobil Corp. 1999 Poor Petroleum (integrated) 71,100 Wells Fargo & Co. 1998 Critical Banking 265,000