Chapter 7

Survey Research

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 LEARNING
LEARNING OUTCOMES
OUTCOMES
After studying this chapter, you should
1. Define surveys and describe the type of information
that may be gathered in a survey
2. Identify sources of error in survey research
3. Summarize the ways researchers gather information
through personal interviews
4. Know the advantages and disadvantages of
conducting surveys using personal interviews,
telephone calls, smartphone, tablet or PC
5. Appreciate the importance of pretesting questionnaires
6. Describe ethical issues that arise in survey research

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 Introduction
• Respondents are the people who answer
questions during a survey
• A survey represents a way of describing public
opinion by collecting primary data through
communicating directly with individual sampling
units
• A sample survey is a more formal term for a
survey emphasizing that respondents’ opinions
presumably represent a sample of the larger
target population’s opinion

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 The Types of Information Gathered Using
Surveys
• Questions about product use, desirable features,
and Web habits help with product development
and advertising messages
• Surveys gather information to assess consumer
knowledge and awareness of products, brands,
or issues and to measure consumer attitudes,
feelings and behaviors
• Certain aspects of surveys may be qualitative

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 Advantages and Disadvantages of Survey
Research
• Advantages
 Quick
 Inexpensive
 Efficient
 Accurate
 Flexible
• Disadvantages
 Can have errors, which cause misleading results

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 EXHIBIT 7.1 Source of Survey Error That Distract from Representativeness

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 Sources of Error in Surveys
• Random versus systematic sampling error
 Sampling error—error arising because of
inadequacies of the actual respondents to represent
the population of interest
 Systematic error—error resulting from some imperfect
aspect of the research design
 Population parameter—refers to some true value of a
phenomenon within a population
 Sample bias—a persistent tendency for the results of
a sample to deviate in one direction from the true
value of the population parameter

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 Respondent Error
• A category of sample bias resulting from some
respondent action such as lying or inaction
• Two major categories
 Nonresponse error bias
 Response bias

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 Nonresponse Error
• The statistical difference between a survey that
includes those who responded and those who
failed to respond
 Nonrespondents—sample members who are
mistakenly not contacted or who refuse to provide
input in the research
 No contacts—potential respondents who do not
receive the request to participate in the research
 Refusals—people who are unwilling to participate
 Self-selection bias—people who feel strongly about a
subject are more likely to respond

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 Response Bias
• A bias that occurs when respondents either
consciously or unconsciously answer questions
with a certain slant that misrepresents the truth
• Can include two broad categories:
 Deliberate falsification
 Unconscious misrepresentation

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 Types of Response Bias
• Acquiescence bias—tendency for a respondent
to try to agree with the viewpoint of a survey
• Extremity bias—some individuals tend to use
extremes when responding to questions
• Interviewer bias—the presence of the
interviewer influences respondents’ answers
• Social desirability bias—bias in responses
caused by respondents’ desire, either conscious
or unconscious, to gain prestige or appear in a
different social role

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 Administrative Error
• An error caused by the improper administration
or execution of the research task
• Types:
 Data processing error—incorrect data entry, incorrect
computer programming, or other procedural errors
during data analysis
 Sample selection error—improper sample design or
sampling procedure execution
 Interviewer error—mistakes made by interviewers
 Interviewer cheating—filling in fake answers or
falsifying questionnaires during an interview

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 What Can Be Done to Reduce Survey Error?
• Upon recognizing the problems, steps can be
applied to reduce survey errors
• Future chapters discuss some ways to reduce
error through effective questionnaire and
sampling design

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 Ways Marketing Researchers Conduct
Survey Interviews
• Interactive survey approaches
 Communication that allows spontaneous two-way
interaction between the interviewer and the
respondent
• Noninteractive media
 Two-way communication by which respondents give
answers to static questions that do not allow a
dynamic dialog

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 Conducting Personal Interviews
• Interactive face-to-face communication in which
an interviewer asks a respondent to answer
questions
• Advantages of personal interviews
 Opportunity for feedback
 Probing complex answers
 Length of interview
 Completeness of questionnaire
 Props and visual aids
 High participation rate

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 Conducting Personal Interviews (cont’d.)
• Disadvantages of personal interviews
 Interviewer bias
 Respondents act differently with different interviewers
 Interviewer’s tone of voice and appearance are influential

 Lack of anonymity of respondent

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 Other Interview Types
• Mall intercepts
 Personal interviews conducted in a shopping center
• Door-to-door interviews
 Personal interviews conducted at respondents’
doorsteps in an effort to increase the participation rate
in the survey
• Callbacks
 Attempts to try and contact those sample members
missed in the initial attempt
 CATI—acronym for computer-assisted telephone
interviews

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 Personal Interviews: Global Considerations
• The manner of conducting and the
receptiveness to personal interview varies
dramatically around the world
• Cultural norms play a role in selecting a survey
approach
• Researchers face both cultural and social norms
when doing research that requires business
people to participate

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 Telephone Interviews: Landline Phones
• No call legislation
 Marketers cannot call phone numbers listed on the
do-not-call registry
 Robocalls— a phone call conducted by an autodialer
and using recorded voice message system
• Ownership
 Coverage bias—misrepresentation of a population by
survey results that disproportionately represent one
group over another

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 Telephone Interviews: Mobile Phones
• In the United States, telemarketing toward
mobile phone numbers is prohibited unless the
user opts in
• The area codes for mobile phones are not
necessarily geographic
• The phones have varying abilities for automated
responses and differing keypads

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 Phone Interview Characteristics
• Random digit dialing
• Landline versus mobile phone results
• Speed
• Cost
• Absence of face-to-face contact
• Cooperation
• Incentives to respond
• Lack of visual medium

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 EXHIBIT 7.2 Comparing and Contrasting Landline and Mobile Phones

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 EXHIBIT 7.2 Comparing and Contrasting Landline and Mobile Phones (cont’d.)

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 Other Aspects of Telephone Interviews
• Central location interviewing
 Telephone interviews conducted from a central
location, allowing firms to hire a staff of professional
interviewers and to supervise and control the quality
of interviewing more effectively
• Global considerations
 Different cultures often have different norms about
proper telephone behavior

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 Surveys Using Self-Administered
Questionnaires
• Self-administered questionnaires—surveys in
which the respondent takes the responsibility for
reading and answering the questions without
having them stated orally by an interviewer

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 EXHIBIT 7.3 Options for Self-Administered Questionnaires

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 Mail Questionnaires
• Geographic flexibility
• Cost
• Respondent convenience
• Respondent anonymity
• Absence of interviewer
• Standardized questions
• Time is money
• Length of mail questionnaire—10 minutes or
less

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 EXHIBIT 7.4 Costs of Snail Mail Versus Courier Surveys

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 Response Rates
• The number of questionnaires returned and
completed divided by the number of sample
members
• Increasing response rates for mail surveys
 Include a cover letter
 Provide incentives
 Give advance notification
 Keep survey sponsorship anonymous
 Keying mail questionnaires with codes - the
researcher knows who has responded and remove
them from the sample list

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 Self-Administered Questionnaires Using
Other Forms of Distribution
• Drop-off method
 A survey method that requires the interviewer to travel
to the respondent’s location to drop off questionnaires
that will be picked up later

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 E-Mail Surveys
• Survey requests distributed through e-mail
• Can include:
 Survey in the body of an e-mail
 Survey as an attachment
 A hyperlink to a Web-based survey
• Sampling and e-mail
 Most people can be sampled via e-mail

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 Advantages and Disadvantages of E-Mail
• Advantages • Disadvantages
 Speed  Possible lack of
 Lower cost anonymity
 Faster turn around  Spam filters
time  Problems with
 More flexibility successful delivery
 Less manual
processing
 Candid responses

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 Internet Surveys
• Advantages
 Speed and cost-effectiveness
 Visual appeal and interactivity
 Respondent participation and cooperation
 Crowdsourcing—inviting many, many people; even a small
percentage generates a usable sample
 Accurate real-time data capture
 Callbacks
 Should not be used for anonymous surveys
 Personalized and flexible questioning
 Respondent anonymity

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 Improving Response Rates
• Click-through rate
 The portion of potential respondents exposed to a
hyperlink to a survey who actually click through to
view the questionnaire
• Incentives:
 Increase response rates
 Prepaid incentives do better than promised incentives
 Response rates increase with the size of incentive
 Can influence what type of person responds
• Maximizing response rate does not guarantee
sample representativeness
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 Response Quality
• Internet surveys are still in their infancy in many
ways
• Web-based survey approaches produce data
that is as good as traditional landline phone
surveys

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 Text-Message Surveys
• Text-message surveys have all the advantages
of mobile-phone surveys, including increased
reach
• Can only be used for respondents who have
opted in with expressed consent
• MMS messages can include graphic displays or
even short videos

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 Choosing an Appropriate Survey Approach
• Questions to determine the approach
 Is the assistance of the interviewer necessary?
 Are respondents interested in the issues being
investigated?
 Will cooperation be easily attained?
 How quickly is the information needed?
 Will the study require a long and complex
questionnaire?
 How large is the budget?
• Mixed-mode survey—more than one survey
medium
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 EXHIBIT 7.6 Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Survey Approaches

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 EXHIBIT 7.6 Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Survey Approaches (cont’d.)

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 Pretesting Survey Instruments
• Pretesting—screening procedure that involves a
trial run with a group of respondents to iron out
fundamental problems in the survey design
• Researchers benefit by spotting problems in the
pretest
• Three ways of pretesting:
 Ask colleagues to screen the survey for problems
 Ask the manager who asked for the survey to screen
it for problems
 A true pretest, or trial run, of the survey

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 Ethical Issues in Survey Research
• Participants’ right to privacy
• The use of deception
• Respondents’ rights to be informed about the
purpose of the research
• The need for confidentiality
• The need for honesty in collecting data
• The need for objectivity in collecting data

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