CHAPTER 8 : SURVEYS

Introduction

Survey method: asking individuals questions face to face, by telephone or via questionnaires.
- Goal: find out personal, company or sector information.

Census: survey where the whole population is involved.

The survey process

1. Design
2. Write the questions
3. Pilot the survey
4. Administer the survey
5. Data entry
6. Analysis
7. Report

Design

• Surveys are the last resort because a lack of the population answer.

• Tips for doing a survey:

- Short
- Open layout
- Clear, short, unambiguous questions
- Imbedded instructions (give examples)
- Have scales all going one way
- Have a simple return mechanism

Variables in the survey

- Response variable (eg. Revenue last year)
- Independent variable (eg. Effort in quality management)
- Control variable (eg. size, level of competition, etc.)

Survey delivery platform

Delivery Who completes: Cost Length of Response Comments
platform surveyor or surveyed questionnaire rates
Household Either €€€ Can be long High - Time consuming
Street Surveyor €€ Short Medium - Representative pool?
Telephone Surveyor €€ Short Depends on
culture
E-mail/Web Surveyed € Short Low - Reliability concerns
Mail Surveyed € Variable Low
Customer Either €€ Medium Variable - Requires permission
of retailer
Organization Surveyor € Medium High - Can be biased

Questions

Open and closed questions

• Questions in which respondents are asked to describe issues or state their views and feelings.

• Analyzing those answers is time consuming and difficult.

• Closed questions restrict the choice available but the respondent finds it easy to deal with.

• One or multiple responses possible.

• Types of open and closed questions:

- Rank: rank items in a given list in order of preference or importance. BUT:
o Difficult if more than 5 items
o Poor selection of options can compromise the research
- Distribution: distribute points or factitious currency between the options to reflect importance.
o Respondents often find trouble allocating points.
o Not precise.
- General data questions (eg. How much you spend on food per week?)
- Categories: tick the appropriate box
- Likert scales: rate a response on 4, 5, or 6-point scale (very unimportant, unimportant, neutral,
important, very important)
o Easy to answer and analyze
o Odd-numbered scales are recommended
- Attitude statements: ask for the level of agreement (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree,
strongly agree)
- Semantic scales: mark his/her strength of feeling or opinion on a line which goes from low to high
- The “don’t know the answer”: or “not applicable” box

• Harmonization: process by which questions are kept the same between surveys. Focus on developing
standardization of categories and definitions.

• Questionnaire layout:
- Have a lot of white space  ease the respondent
- Easy questions at the beginning and questions which may damage the response rate near the end
- Use “go to” to avoid subjects completing irrelevant areas

• Ethics: the purpose of the questionnaire must be clearly described to the potential respondent.

Pilot survey

• Why?
- The questionnaire is clear and can be completed in the way you wish
- Find the questions that trouble people
- Way of improvement
- Time to have to complete it

Administering the survey

• Mail surveys:
- Prepaid return envelopes should be included
- Best to contact the respondents in advance
- Send the questionnaire out in waves
- Should be sent out 10 days to 2 weeks later
 - Code the questionnaire: to remind the good people (who haven’t answered)

• E-surveys:
- Uncertainty about the respondent
- Response rates tend to be very poor
- Responses are collated and can be easily download to analyze them  reduction of transcription
errors

• Social media:
- Tend to be unrepresentative

Ensuring high response rates

Number of respondents
=Good response rates
Number approached

Missing information

Unit non-response = when a particular group does not reply

Item non-response = when a question or some questions are not answered

Model-based imputation = where statistical regression or neural network procedures are used to predict
the missing values

• Futrell (1994) 10 reasons for why surveys fail:

1. Failing to use statistical sampling methods
2. Ignoring non-response
3. Failing to assess the reliability of the survey
4. Treating perceptions as objective measures
5. Treating surveys as an event and not a process (a point in time)
6. Asking non-specific questions that can be interpreted in several ways
7. Failing to ask all the questions
8. Using incorrect or incomplete data analysis methods
9. Ignoring some of the results
10. Using the results incorrectly

Coding and data input

• Recommended that questionnaire responses be entered into a spreadsheet (excel).

• First row: headings which identify each question.

• Each following row: someone’s responses.

• Each column: answer to each question.

Social networks
Sociogram: it is used to trace out patterns of communication, understand how individuals influence one
another and how information flows in an organization.
- Strength of the contact: frequency x value
- Size of the circles: how central or important someone is in the network
- Thickness of the connecting line: strength of the tie
 CHAPTER 15: CONDUCTING YOUR RESEARCH
Selecting the topic

Focusing on a research topic: to avoid the vague topic, we can use this approach:
- Choose a research area such as demography, economic growth, international marketing, sociology,
etc.
- Identify a particular field within the broad area.
- Consider what specific aspect of the field you wish to investigate.

Does it interest you?

- Topic has to be the one that keeps you curious

How much do you know about it already?

- Any topics that you have already researched are worth considering as potential research project
subjects.

How difficult is a dissertation likely to be?

- The level of qualification: at master level, your dissertation should reflect a clear understanding of
research method, the application of relevant analytical techniques and a well-argued analysis.
- Complexity of the subject matter: enough materials to handle it.
- Availability of expertise.
- Ease of data access: present empirical material. Data easy to collect? Do you have to create it?
- Time required for completion: estimating timing and feasibility.
- What do you wish to do when you graduate: dissertation link to this can help you to have the right
knowledge.

Guide to supervision

Using your supervisor’s time

Number of areas on which you can call him/her:
- Refining your choice of topic.
- Advise on academic literature.
- Design and research method.
- Relevance and practicality of the proposal.
- Timetable for completion.
- Research problems to date.
- Draft chapters.

Undertaking your research

Plan what you are going to do: detailed time plan:

- Identify all the activities.
- Attach time duration to these activities.

Project plan
To organize this, a project plan helps:
- Forward pass = indicate the earliest start time of each activity (in the boxes)
- Backward pass = starting with the latest finish time of the preceding activity (in the boxes as well).
- Floats = activities not on the critical path, the latest end time – the earliest start time – the duration
of that activity.
Gantt chart
Then, a Gantt chart can be displayed (time chart marking the critical path and showing the milestones).
- The black boxes represent the duration of the critical path.
- The grey boxes show activities with floats.
 CHAPTER 16: WRITING AND PRESENTING THE DISSERTATION
The dissertation

Each dissertation should involve some of the following:

- Problem identification
- Problem resolution
- Information search
- Application of methods developed in the programme
- Drawing appropriate conclusions

Dissertation objectives

Students have to demonstrate:

- An ability to organize and plan in a timely manner.
- The production of a logical, coherent and well-structured analysis.
- The applicability of concepts learned and the critical ability to evaluate their limitations.

What should a dissertation look like?

Nature of the work: how that you can undertake an independent piece of research in a specialist area of
your choice.

Relevance: the research topic:

- Must be heavily policy oriented or heavily theory oriented.
- May involve a high degree of statistical analysis or a high degree of discursive analysis.
- May be strongly linked to a single theoretical framework or to a number of theoretical models.
- May be a work-based research project or not.

Presenting the dissertation

Structure:
- 1 inside page: title, your name and year
- Acknowledgments
- A content page
- List of tables and figures
- Abstract (500 words: description of the nature of the work, how it was undertaken and its main
findings)
- First chapter = introduction (research purpose and objectives)
- Chapter 2 = literature review (a bridge between the objectives of the research and the analysis to
come)
- Other chapters = analysis
- Final chapter = conclusion (should clearly show which of the research objectives have been
achieved and which remain unanswered) + limits
- Appendices
- References and bibliography

Research method: a section on research method and why this method is appropriate to the research
questions.

Style:
 - Dissertation title = bold, capitals, 18pts
- Chapter titles = bold, initial capitals, 14 pts
- Sub-headings = as chapters but 12 pts
- Quotations = quotation marks to be used and quotation to be indented one space below paragraph
and one space above the next paragraph. Source and page number to be clearly shown

Citing literature: you must reference all the literature you discuss in the dissertation, using the Harvard
referencing system.

Typing:
- One and a half line spaced with a left margin throughout, of at least 25mm.
- Typescript: 12pts in black arial front
- Page numbers in Arabic numerals at the bottom centre of the page
o Initial pages (contents, abstract and appendices) should be in roman numerals
- Declaration to be made that you are the author
- Printed on a one side of paper
- Margins: 25mm
- Each chapter should be sectioned into subsections and the subsections numbered and given a title.
- Figures and tables: should be included in the main text and referred to by chapter, subsection and
number
- References: should be referred by name and date in the text and listed alphabetically in the
bibliography at the end of the dissertation