Survey Research and Related

Issues
Topic 3

Agenda
Intro to Surveys
Sampling Issues
Sampling methods
Scaling & Measurement
Different formats of scales
Questionnaire Design
Types of Surveys
Summary

Intro to Survey Research

Survey research is probably the most
widely used among all types
Think of opinion polling, tracking studies
and so on
It has wide & varied application areas
MR is often confounded with survey
We shall now look at related areas
Once you know the problem, what is the
first step in survey?

Sampling Issues
The first step is sampling
Census often hard though possible
sometimes e.g?

What are some different sampling

methods that you know of?

Sampling Issues
Essentially, two types - probability
and non-probability sampling
In prob sampling, each element has
a fixed chance of getting selected
Not so in non-prob sampling where
researchers judgment and bias
involved
What are some non-prob and prob
sampling techniques that you are
aware of?

Non-Probability Sampling
Convenience sampling is quite common
e.g.?
Then you have judgmental sampling

Researcher or MR agency uses judgment,

expertise in determining who will comprise the
sample

Quota sampling sample follows same

ratio as population but within each quota,
no random selection
Snowball sampling one respondent gives
you another contact and so on e.g.?
What are some cons of non-prob
sampling?

Cons of Non-Prob
Non-prob sampling is not
representative of the population
Hence not generalisable to population
So why use it at all?

Personally believe that ill-effects of

non-prob overblown
Common sense has to be used

Probability Sampling
Simple random sampling: every element
has an equal chance of getting picked:
want an SPSS demo now?
Systematic sampling: the first element is
picked at random, then every jth element
Stratified sampling: divide population into
strata and within each stratum, SRS is
done
Cluster Sampling: divide sample into
exhaustive clusters and draw random
clusters e.g?
Differences between last 2?

Probability Sampling
In cluster, only sample of clusters is
chosen e.g. area sampling
In stratified, all strata are chosen
Cluster is cheaper but less precise
Pros and Cons of Prob sampling?

Pros & Cons of Prob Sampling

Pros are representativeness and
generalisability
Cons are
Cost need a sampling frame what is
this?
Time and effort higher
Besides, generalisable to future?
Truly random possible?

When to Use Which

When to use which type?
When stratified? When judgmental?
Is there is a best type?

Scaling and Measurement

What are the different types of scales
that are there any idea?

Scaling and Measurement

Nominal, Ordinal, Interval and Ratio scales are
there
Nominal is just that nominal e.g.?
Ordinal has the property of order, not distance
e.g.?
Interval has the property of order and distance,
but zero is arbitrary e.g.?
Ratio has all including real zero e.g.?
Can you count from 100-1?
Say alphabets backwards?

What statistics can be used with above?

Scaling and Measurement

Mean only with interval and ratio
Median with ordinal, interval and
ratio
Mode with all
In general, use interval/ratio
wherever possible
Amenable to much more statistical
analysis

Different Formats of Scales

Likert is one such format

When can you use this?

5-point better or 7-Point better or 4-point?

Semantic Differential

What is this?
Are these interval or ordinal scales?
When can you use this?
Is this better than Likert scale?

You can use continuous scales as well

What is this?

Different Formats of Scales

Else, can use 100-point scale
What is this?
When is it used?

There are new scales as well

Happy-sad faces

Also several qualitative ones are there as

well
Rarely used; please read book for knowledge
I stick to Likert mostly
Of course, for nominal data scaling is easy

Questionnaire Design
The questionnaire is at the heart of the
data collection effort in survey research

Hence, highly crucial

Getting responses is hard enough response
rate matters; what is this? What should it be?
Hence, one should never make it hard for
ourselves
Even if Ho is false, we are able to explain 3050% only
Bad scaling and questionnaires will make this
poorer still

So what are some good practices in

questionnaire design?

Questionnaire Design
Use questions that test our hypotheses or serve
our objectives
No other question is allowed; it will lengthen
questionnaire
When is a really long questionnaire acceptable?

Do not however sacrifice validity to parsimony

meaning?
Use multiple-item measures meaning? Why?
How many items?
Why CAT, XAT, JMET, MAT, GMAT----?
Why is test cricket better than 20-20?

Use pre-determined scales tested for reliability

and validity
Difference between the two?

Questionnaire Design
Once you use multiple item measures,
calculate average
Take care of reverse scored items first;
meaning?
Then calculate Cronbach
This is a measure of reliability
The average of all possible split-half
reliabilities
Must be > 0.6 at least
Want SPSS demo?

Questionnaire Design
Thus, reliability is basically consistency
However, reliability is not sufficient for validity,
though necessary
One can be consistently wrong
One can think of the dart example

Thus, validity is the extent to which the scale

measurement is reflective of the true
phenomenon under study
Pre-existing scales have been tested for both
As a client, you need to ask these sorts of
questions
Do not take things lying down

Questionnaire Design
Must have DV and IVs, to the extent
possible
Measure both separately
Very very critical

Order, which to measure first?

Questionnaire Design
Avoid double-barreled questions
meaning and example?
Avoid leading questions e.g.?
Avoid ambiguity
Use clear, simple, easy-to-understand
English
Do not confuse

Make the questionnaire appear short

how?

Questionnaire Design
Have a data analysis plan in place before
the questionnaire is sent to the field
In fact, some even generate dummy data &
run analyses

Do a pretest

What is the sample size for this? Why?

Counterbalance the order of constructs,

not items within constructs meaning?
Thus, questionnaire design is not that
hard, the devil is in the details
Questions?

Types of Surveys
So what are the different types of
surveys that you know of?

Types of Surveys
Personal Interviews
Mail Surveys
Mall Surveys
Telephone survey
E-Mail/Net Survey
Survey panels
Please read text for above except mall

Pluses and Minuses of Surveys

What are some major pluses? Major
minuses?

Pluses and Minuses of Surveys

Major pluses are:
Wide applicability CS, BE, Attitude Tracking
and so on
Do the planning, then it becomes a logistical
exercise, not a big deal
Easy selling to client!

Major cons are:

Customers not able to articulate, lying etc
Data are retrospective, hence mall surveys are
useful

Mall Survey
What is a mall survey?

Mall Survey
Mall means site of service
Could be bank, PO, airport
Typically a retail outlet

There are two types

Singe stage mall survey
Two stage mall survey

Summary
Sampling, questionnaire design,
survey methods highly critical
Can make or break your MR project
As a MR person, be careful
As a client, ask for such info as well