A STRUCTURAL APPROACH FOR

ONLINE SURVEYS

A research presentation by Knut Linke, University of Latvia, at the

International Conference:

NEW CHALLENGES OF ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

MAY 10 – 12, 2012

RIGA, LATVIA

Overview

� Research Approach

� Prestudies

� Questionaire

� Results

� Findings

� Summary

� Future usage

research approach

� Current Environment:

� In the current time the Internet, as communication channel, is

responsible to gather more and more information. Empirical

research is preceded on this channel to act fast and cost

effective.

� Research Purpose:

� The research had as purpose to understand issues during the

preceding of online surveys to avoid those issues during the

online survey for the doctoral thesis and increase the quality of

the survey in the dimensions of results, participation and

reception.

prestudies for the survey

� Workshop with 12 students in the age range between 19

and 40 years regarding the topics:

� When do you share information in the Internet?

� When do you provide valid data or invalid data in the Internet?

� Followed by a deep interview with a Social Media expert

and Internet politican.

� Focus on actual topics from the net and from the political sector

prestudies findings

Findings Workshop:

� It must be distinguished in which situation personal information is share with another person or website.

� It must be clear under which and for which reasons and goals I share the information and with whom I share the information.

� It must be communicated how serious the environment in which I share information is and to which institution or person I share the information.

� The participant must understand what the added value from the participation is. It should be clear, what the participant gets out from the interaction.

� The participant must be aware that information are directly provided by the usage from the Internet itself, such as forums or search engines.

prestudies findings

Findings Interview:� A relationship should be established with the

person/organization to which I send information, with the target to increase a higher efficiency in the response.

� Does the participant understand the goals from the requesting of information and does the person agree on the usage.

� In this context it must be clear who is working with the information, after the information is send.

� It should be communicated how the participant can influence or change the information which were provided and it should be understandable what will be done with the information and how the result will influence the participants life.

� The security features and functions, which support the data transfer, must be understandable for the participant.

� Basic demographic data

� The survey itself was planned with a focus on younger people

� Four sections:

� Providing of personal information (A1 – A5)

� Answering honest in the Internet (B1 – B8)

� Factors which makes a suvery serious (C1 – C5)

� Influence factors in responsing behavior (D1 – D4)

� Usage of a 7-Likert-Scale

� 1 = I do not agree up to 7 = I agree

questionaire

the survey itself

� Was answered manually by 65 people out of the target

group from the later research for the doctoral thesis

� preceded in December 2011

� 24 women and 41 men

� average age of 23 years (median: 21, mode: 21)

� age range between 18 and 54 years

� Most people were not able to determine their Internet start date

� All of the questions were answered in a 20%-80%

distribution above the Likert-7-scale. No answers has a

result were >80% from the participants answered similar

on the scale and none of the answers has a median were

<20% selected the answer.

� Results were discussed in addition with two Internet

business experts to validate the results

� The interviews displayed the recognition from the findings and

provided valuable and additional information.

correlations A1 – D4

results A1 – A5

Median Mode Standard deviation

Standard deviation

(sample)

A1 You want to test the service: 2 1 1.73 1.72

A2 Use the service for a longer period of time: 6 6 1.65 1.63

A3 Friends or acquaintance have sign up: 6 6 1.62 1.61

A4 You want to use a service for business purpose: 7 7 1.59 1.58

A5 You want to use a service for private purpose: 5 6 1.61 1.60

1 2 3 4 5 6 7A1 25 17 6 4 6 3 2

A2 2 5 1 7 11 20 18A3 2 4 6 6 14 20 12A4 3 1 1 5 4 14 36A5 0 10 5 12 11 19 7

0

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results B1 – B4

1 2 3 4 5 6 7B1 4 7 7 11 15 15 5

B2 2 3 4 10 19 13 13B3 3 5 5 14 17 12 8B4 11 16 10 12 11 3 1

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Median Mode

Standard

deviation

Standard deviation

(sample)

B1 You are expecting an added value from the participation: 5 6 1.69 1.68

B2 You are expecting an added value from your participation,

like a change from the current situation (i.e. in politics):

5 5 1.54 1.53

B3 The survey is related to myself: 5 5 1.61 1.59

B4 The survey is in combination with a raffle: 3 2 1.58 1.57

results B5 – B8

Median Mode

Standard

deviation

Standard deviation

(sample)

B5 You are in a relationship with the person how is requesting

information from you:

6 7 1.53 1.52

B6 The Internet form is secured with a codification like HTTPS: 5 6 1.65 1.64

B7 The questioner is serious. 6 6 1.46 1.45

B8 You have to fill out an empty attribute: 4 4 1.47 1.46

1 2 3 4 5 6 7B5 2 2 1 9 9 19 22

B6 4 5 6 11 15 18 5B7 3 0 4 8 11 28 10B8 6 7 6 23 16 4 2

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results C1 – C5

Median Mode Standard deviation Standard deviation (sample)

C1 Internet address of the survey: 6 6 1.70 1.69

C2 Design-no advertisement, lean illustration: 6 6 1.52 1.51

C3 Scientific questions: 6 6 1.44 1.42

C4 Objective questions: 5 6 1.54 1.53

C5 Kind of language: 6 6 1.60 1.59

1 2 3 4 5 6 7C1 3 5 3 7 12 22 13C2 2 3 6 6 15 24 9C3 2 1 5 6 16 23 12

C4 4 0 3 8 18 19 13C5 3 3 1 7 12 23 16

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results D1 – D4

1 2 3 4 5 6 7D1 8 6 8 11 10 17 4

D2 6 5 11 10 15 12 5

D3 3 2 5 8 22 16 8

D4 7 8 8 16 11 10 4

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Median Mode

Standard

deviation

Standard deviation

(sample)

D1 You can win a price: 4 6 1.85 1.84

D2 The answers can be get connected to you: 5 5 1.73 1.72

D3 You are in a relation with the institution which sets up

the survey:

5 5 1.50 1.49

D4 An ID or PIN is displayed on the address from the survey: 4 4 1.74 1.72

research findings

1. Trust must be established, which can be supported with the design (non-commercial) from the survey, as also from the way of communication from the questions and descriptions.

2. The target and goal of the questionnaire must be understandable for the participants.

3. The participant should be receiving possible information after the participation and the provider of the survey should be communicated and it should be understandable which targets the provider has.

4. To support the data protection the user should have the possibility to erase his data after the participation. Also it should be possible to change possible answers afterwards.

5. It should be possible for a person to receive additional information about the scientific work, also after the participation.

research findings

6. Free text field, where participants can insert individual response, should be avoided.

� This barrier can be a reason for a participant to insert invalid or wrong information, closed questions should be preferred.

7. The user should be informed, if private or business related information are requested.

8. It should be avoided that the participant has the feeling that s/he can test the survey. A question “Did you filled out the questionnaire honest? If not, if you only tested it, please click here” can help.

9. A participant should have the possibility to share the survey with his friends or associates, if this create an added value for the research and to establish an additional relationship with the survey.

� Strong dependencies and influences factors could be

deterimend

Participants needs:

� support during the participation process

� A clear and transparent communication

� The ability to avoid work, to support the process and to

establish a relationship afterwards

� Future usage will be possible in combination with

additional „research“

summary

� Usage of the information to shape the final survey in the sector of:

� Communication

� Technical Providing

� Application Development

� Current reserach level - Prototype development:

� 6 groups of 2-4 Bachelor students are developing different prototypes

until the mid of June based on results of the survey

� Best practices will be used for the final survey.

� Examples ☺

future usage

support the user & provide

validation

Different ways to access the survey

sign up, anonymus or 3rd Party?

Provide additional information and help

provide trust

Let support the user the survey:

use the trust

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION