Research Methodology

Lecture 10: Surveys (Ch.8)

Prof. Dr. Raghda El Ebrashi

Associate Professor of Strategic Management
Head of the Management & Organization Department
 Learning Objectives
 The process for selecting the appropriate and optimal communication approach.
 Factors affect participation in communication studies.
 Sources of error in communication studies and how to minimize them.
 Major advantages and disadvantages of the three communication approaches.
 Why an organization might outsource a communication study.

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 What are surveys?
And how are they different from interviews?

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 Please indicate whether the following statements are true or false:

True False

I am always willing to admit it when I make a mistake

I have never deliberately said something that hurts someone’s feelings

I have never been annoyed when people expressed ideas very different from
my own

There have been times when I was quite jealous of the good fortune of others

I am always polite, even to people who are disagreeable

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 “If social media is the temperature check, surveys are

Thoughts.. the taste test to validate that the meal is cooked

properly. A good survey enables you to:
(1) tune out the noise in the opinions and comments
that are directly applicable to your most pressing
questions, and
(2) validate trends and shifts in preference that you may
have suspected, but weren’t certain about.”

Reggie Aggarwal, CEO,

Cvent
Data Collection
Approach
Selecting a Communication
Data Collection Approach
 Survey as a Communication Approach

 The communication approach involves surveying or interviewing

people and recording their responses for analysis.
 A survey is a measurement process used to collect
information during a highly structures interview – sometimes
with a human interviewer and other times without.
 Derive comparable data across subsets of the chosen
sample so that similarities and differences can be found.

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Communication Approach
Strengths Weaknesses
 Versatility  Error
(Adaptation)  Inaccessible
 Efficiency populations
(Cost saving)
 Geographic coverage
 Sources of Error
Measurement
 There are three sources of error that researchers Questions
should aim to control

Participant Interviewer
 Sources of Error
Measurement
Questions
 Select or craft inappropriate
questions.
 Ask them in inappropriate
order.
 Use inappropriate
transitions and instructions
to illicit information.
Interviewer
 Participant cooperation.
 Record answers accurately
or completely.
 Interview procedures.
 Interview environment.
 Influence behavior.
 Physical presence bias.
Participant
 Participation-based errors
(willingness).
 Response-based errors
(incomplete answers or
wrong answers).
What can motivate potential respondents to participate in a
survey?
And What factors can demotivate them?

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Factors Influencing
Participant
Motivation

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Response Terms
Is a ratio of potential but unreached contacts to all

Noncontact rate potential contacts.

A contact may be unreachable due to no answer, busy
signal, answering machine or voice mail

Refers to the ratio of contacted participants who decline

Refusal rate the interview to all potential contacts.

Incidence rate Refers to the ratio of contacted people who actually

qualify for the survey to all contacts
Survey Techniques

Self- Survey via

Telephone
Administered Personal
Survey
Survey Interview

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Modes of Self-Administered Surveys

email

Disk-by-Mail Drop-off

CASI Fax
Advantages of Self-Administered Surveys

Costs

Sample Accessibility

Time Constraints

Topic Coverage

Anonymity
Disadvantages of Self-Administered Study

 Low response rates in some  Skewed responses by

modes
 No interviewer intervention
 Cannot be too long
 Cannot be too complex
 Requires accurate list
extremists
 Participant anxiety possible
 Directions necessary
 Need for low-distraction
environment
Options for Web-based Surveys

Fee-Based Surveying
Service Software
Example: Surveymonkey.com Example: Inquisite and Snap

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Advantages of Surveying Software
 Questionnaire design in word processing environment
 Question and scale libraries
 Automated publishing to the Web
 Real-time viewing of incoming data
 Rapid transmission of results
 Flexible analysis and reporting mechanisms
The Web as a Survey Research Venue
Advantages
 Cost savings
 Short turnaround
 Use of visual stimuli
 Access to participants
 Perception of anonymity
 Access to data and experiences
otherwise unavailable
 Disadvantages
 Recruitment
 Coverage
 Difficulty developing
probability samples
 Technical skill
 System compatibility issues
 Possible self-selection bias
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Telephone Survey

Traditional

CATI systems
(Computer assisted Telephone Interviewing)

Computer-administered
(No human interviewer)

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10-
Disadvantages of the Telephone Survey
 Lower response rate
 Early termination
 Higher costs if geographically
dispersed sample
 Limited Interview length
 Inaccessible populations
 Limited complexity of scales
Survey via Personal Interviews

CAPI
(Computer-assisted personal interviewing)

Intercept
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Evaluation of Personal Survey
Advantages Disadvantages
 Good cooperation rates  High costs
 Interviewer can probe and explain  Need for highly trained
 Visual aids possible interviewers
 Illiterate participants can be  Time consuming
reached  Labor-intensive
 Interviewer can prescreen  Interviewer bias possible
 CAPI possible

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Improving Response Rates
Advance Notification

Reminders

Monetary Incentives

Participation Deadlines

Promise of Anonymity

Appeal for Participation

Snapshot: Gamification in Research

 Gamification is the process of “using game thinking and game mechanics to engage
audiences and solve problems.”
 According to the Gartner Group, 50 percent of all innovation and 70% of all Global 2000 companies
will be gamifying processes by 2015.
 Many survey participants consider the survey process boring.
 “As our surveys become games, the people taking part aren’t quite respondents but they’re not
quite game players either.” They are called “playspondents”.
Snapshot: Gamification in Research
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What is a good Response Rate in consumer research?

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 What is a good survey response rate in
Consumer Research?

 A good survey response rate ranges between 5% and

30%.

 An excellent response rate is 50% or higher.

 33% as the average response rate for all survey

channels, including in-person and digital
(SurveyAnyplace, 2018)

 >20% being a good survey response rate for NPS

surveys (Genroe, 2019)

https://delighted.com/blog/average-survey-response-rate 31
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Declining Phone Response
https://www.xola.com/articles/survey-benchmarks-whats-a-good-survey-response-rate/#good-response-rate 34
Snapshot: Voice Adds Depth

 Hybrid study uses automated phone study to

capture precise responses to open-ended
questions.

 Answers to open ended questions were 15%

longer over the automated study than on an
online study

“By eliminating the human

interviewer from the call, we
allow the caller to participate
whenever it suits them, rather
than when it suits us.”
Thanks!
Any questions?

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