Improving representativeness in online surveys using a combined internet/postal approach: evidence from a UK-wide survey of consumers.

Atorough, Peter; Donaldson, Bill; Harris, Ainslie

Abstract

The Internet is fast gaining popularity as a medium for undertaking various forms of research, particularly research of a quantitative and survey nature. While the benefits of undertaking such research are numerous and have been recognised in many empirical projects, it has become clear that a major drawback of Internet research is the inability of researchers to achieve representative samples drawn from well-informed scientific sampling techniques. As a result, a review of studies using Internet sample recruitment techniques reveals a predominant bias towards convenience samples, with the attendant weakening of conclusions therein. In this paper, we discuss a survey sampling approach used by the researchers to recruit samples that improved representativeness and at the same time reduced systematic non-response bias. This paper will be of Interest to those considering using Internet based surveys, especially if they are concerned about the generalisability of their results to include wider and non-Internet-based populations. While the approach used herein is not entirely new to the research methods community, our findings provide further proof that a combined online and off-line method toward Internet sampling is more robust and useful for reaching strong, reliable conclusions.

Citation

ATOROUGH, P., DONALDSON, B. and HARRIS, A. 2011. Improving representativeness in online surveys using a combined internet/postal approach: evidence from a UK-wide survey of consumers. In Proceedings of the 2011 Summer conference on advances in business-related scientific research (ABSRC Venice 2011), 1-3 June 2011, Venice, Italy. Venice: Advances in Business-Related Scientific Research Conferences (ABSRC).

• Conference Name: 2011 Summer conference on advances in business-related scientific research (ABSRC Venice 2011)
• Conference Location: Venice, Italy
• Start Date: Jun 1, 2011
• End Date: Jun 3, 2011
• Acceptance Date: Jun 1, 2011
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2011
• Deposit Date: Feb 26, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 26, 2013
• Publisher: Advances in Business-Related Scientific Research Conferences (ABSRC)
• ISBN: 9789619291719
• Keywords: Internet; Survey; Representative samples; Non response bias
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/799