Notice: the WebSM website has not been updated since the beginning of 2018.

Web Survey Bibliography

Title Understanding mobile respondents and their importance for representative samples: attitudes, behavior, demographics and survey-taking.
Year 2017
Access date 14.04.2017
Abstract

Relevance & Research Question: Consumers are increasingly accessing the internet through their mobile devices, so including mobile respondents in online surveys is more important than ever before. But a high share of surveys is still not mobile friendly which can impact the quality of the sample. Many questions regarding sampling and answer quality as well as the lack of (personal) experiences with mobile surveys, hinder researchers to optimize surveys for our mobile world. We address these questions and look into respondent profiles, answer behaviors, levels of distraction and engagement across devices. Furthermore, we will present learnings and best practices on how to design mobile friendly surveys and sampling implications.

Methods & Data: Within international research on research projects we conducted parallel tests with PC vs. mobile samples and analyzed potential differences between PC (computer or laptop), tablet, and smartphone respondents with regard to attitudes, demographics, and survey participation and engagement. We will present the results of different projects, all surveys include at least n=200 respondents per device, total of n=600 per country.

Results: Mobile respondents can have different profiles than PC respondents, which makes it necessary to include them in representative samples. They don`t have meaningful differences in survey-taking behavior and there is no impact on data when survey design is changed to be mobile friendly. Regardless of device, all respondents are distracted by their day-to-day life and mobile respondents are even less likely to be “potentially disengaged”.

Added Value: We were able to prove that mobile friendly designed surveys increase mobile participation and valid data collection. Our research shows that including smartphone respondents in surveys leads to at least four important benefits: 1. Sample representativity and feasibility/ sustainability, ensuring that samples continue to include key population behaviors that mobile respondents disproportionately display 2. Key target accessibility (not only maintain, but improve coverage of specific targets such as younger consumers or mothers of babies) 3. Respondent engagement and good data quality due to positive survey experience of panelists 4. Cost effectiveness by using sample efficiently.

Year of publication2017
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
Print

Web survey bibliography (4086)

Page:
Page: