Introduction to online quantitative research
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Transcript of Introduction to online quantitative research
INTRODUCTION TO ONLINE RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES – FOCUS ON QUANTITATIVE
Pintér Róbert
Corvinus Egyetem, Department of Information and Comm.
Ipsos Interactive Services, Client Service Director
06 November 2012
ONLINE RESEARCH – TOPICS FOR TODAY
Introduction: research of online phenomena and online research methodologies
Online quantitative research in details
INTRODUCTION (REMINDER): WHAT IS INTERNET (OR ONLINE) RESEARCH?
INTRO
How does internet change internet research?
1. Internet changes the business environment, it plays more and more important role in clients’ life, hence it becomes in itself a research topic.
2. But research methodologies also change, internet becomes a research tool (or more exactly: many tools) I AM GOING TO SPEAK ABOUT THIS
AN IMPORTANT COMMENT BEFORE WE START
Starting and ending point of quantitative research methods is representativity (probability sample)
But how could an online research be representative?
In online quantitative research studies quota method substitutes representativity (and guarantees trusted and and valid results)
TYPES OF ONLINE RESEARCH METHODS
Questionnaire based (quantitative) THIS IS TOPIC FOR TODAY
Online qualitative: asking questions (active methods) or observation (passive merhods)
Software based measurement, data collection (e.g. internet audience measurement) I WON’T SPEAK ABOUT THIS
ONLINE QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
ONLINE QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH IS THE MOST WIDSPREAD METHOD IN THE WORLD
ESOMAR Industry Report, 2012: 16
TYPES OF ONLINE QUANT RESEARCH
Banner based or so called open research
Client based address list
(Access) panel based research – most common
BANNER BASED (OR SO CALLED OPEN) RESEARCH
Research questionnaire is accessible via a banner on a page (hence its name), an e-mail link or link shared in social media
This link is not unique: anyone can access to it and may fill it even more than once but researcher can’t send reminders to respondents
Easily implementable and cost effective But we can’t really control the size of sample or
structure of it (long field timing) We don’t know who are represented by sample It may be a good choice: surveying visitors of a
website, involving readers of a newsletter, background research for a thesis
CLIENT LIST BASED RESEARCH METHOD
Only members of a certain list can participate in this type of invitation only survey
It assumes that there is a list of target group from legal source that may be used for research purposes (rare)
Research links are unique, hence fieldwork status may be monitored and targeted reminders can be sent
Hence response rate is better (compared to banner based research) and timing is shorter
However the size of list is the theoretical maximum of sample size as well (which can’t be extended easily)
PANEL BASED RESEARCH The most common (thanks to the limits of other
methods) Predictable and trusted design Beforre invitation to a research questionnaire
respondents register to a research panel In this registration process they fill the registration form
that can be used for targeted invitation later Panel members accept that they receive research
invitations in the future and also accept both the panel and data protection rules
Why to register: incentive, curiosity, to be heard, access to results
However panel members see more research questionnaires than traditional face to face respondents
TYPES OF RESEARCH PANELS
Access panel vs client panel
General vs special panel
Research panel vs research community
A rare approach: probability panel
MERITS AND DEMERITS OF ONLINE QUANT RESEARCH
Cost effective Fast and flexible Possibility of more complex questionnaire
structure Lack of interviewee Relation of target group, research topic and
internet
WHEN WE MAY CARRRY OUT AN ONLINE QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH?
Target group is available on internet Target group is both available in panel and
capacity of panel (or list) is enough to reach the requested sample size
No need for a sample which representative for the entire (online and offline) national population
Research topic and internet use has no significant connection
Research questionnaire is not longer than 20-30 minutes.
DIY: ”DO IT YOURSELF” RESEARCH
Availabe research method for laymen For a good online research you don’t only need
infrastructure (e.g. questionnaire software) but professional knowledge and experience
Procedures by professionals:1. Preparing questionnaire2. Data collection (right sample is the key)3. Data analysis
Who are represented in the database? What is the purpose of the research (e.g. preparing
thesis OR important decision making of a company)?
SUMMARY
Internet has changed the research methodologies
Nowadays online research is the most widespread research method in the world
Among online research methods access panel based research is the most common
But we can’t use online research methods at any time
For you as students DIY research can be the most useful
QUESTIONS
What do you think what is the impact of diffusion of smartphones on online research?
Does Facebook change the applicability of recent market research methodologies?
What do you think how we could reach the youngsters (15-24 years old) with traditional panel based online research?
Why to ask people with questionnaires if we can observe the same respondents in social media?
FURTHER READING
Ray Poynter (2010): The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research. John Wiley and Sons.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
Robert Pinter
Corvinus University
Department of Information and Communication
Ipsos Interactive Services
Client Service Director
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