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Web Survey Bibliography

Title The Mobile Web Only Population: Socio-demographic Characteristics and Potential Bias
Year 2016
Access date 03.06.2016
Abstract
In recent years the use of mobile devices such as smart phones or tablet PCs to complete Web surveys has grown steadily. Thus, survey researchers are facing new challenges when designing Web survey questionnaires. Among others, screen sizes are considerably smaller for mobile devices as compared to desktop PC or notebooks. Also, mobile W
eb respondents are using touch screen data entry instead of a mouse. Accordingly, the question arises whether Web survey questionnaires should be optimized for mobile devices in order to avoid under representation of respondents using mobile devicesdue to difficulty arising from the small screen size and touch screen technology. Since most Web survey respondents still have a desktop PC or notebook available to access the internet optimizing questionnaires for mobile devices may not be necessary avoiding potential differential measurement error. In this paper we assess the so-called mobile Web only respondents who no longer have access to the internet using a desktop PC or notebook. It is assumed that this group is most likely underrepresented in Web surveys not optimized for mobile devises resulting in a potential bias. Using Eurobarometer data from 2012 to 2014 across 27 European countries we estimated the size of the mobile Web only population. Results indicate that the percentage of mobile Web onlys increased from 1.5 percent in 2012 to 6.2 percent in 2014 across Europe. A more detailed analysis indicated that the mobile Web only population is younger, more likely female, less educated, more often living in small or middle sized towns and more often single. Overall, results suggest that Web survey questionnaires should be optimized for mobile devices since exclusion or underrepresentation of the mobile Web onlys may cause considerable bias.
 
 
Year of publication2016
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
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