Internet Surveys

Introduction

Internet surveys are typically based on computerized self-administered questionnaires on the web, where respondents read questions from the screen of a personal computer (PC) and manually record responses. However, the scope of self- administered surveys supported with modern information-communication technology is broader, including other devices than the PC and other networks than the Internet, relying on audio/video communication, and, in particular, combining multiple survey modes.

Computer assisted data collection (CADAC) has changed many aspects of contemporary businesses, from customer payment systems, media audience measurements, retail price auditing, to survey data collection. For the latter, the corresponding applications are labeled computer assisted survey information collection (CASIC). Starting as computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) in the 1970s, computers have further penetrated into the survey process as computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) and self-interviewing (CASI), computerized self-administered questionnaires (CSAQ), touch-tone data entry (TDE) and interactive voice response (IVR).

In the 1990s the Internet enabled e-mail and web types of CSAQ. Because of growing broadband access and hardware/software improvements, Internet related surveys are now continuously expanding. Technology is permanently changing two important aspects of these surveys. First, more multimedia components are introduced to survey questionnaires (e.g. pictures, sounds, video clips, and animations); secondly, more interactivity is provided (e.g. personalization, controls, feedback, virtual interviewers, and personalized help). Internet survey questionnaires are thus dramatically broadening their potential, but they are also becoming more and more complicated. Researchers now have a sophisticated spectrum of tools, while respondents may be unpredictably sensitive to specific applications and their variations. Furthermore, the growing number of potential interface devices (e.g. PCs, TVs, mobile phones, and PDAs) creates another [Page 272]complexity that increasingly requires highly skilled professionals to implement. On the other hand, easy-to-use software packages also allow survey implementation to non- professionals.

The impact of information and communication technology (ICT) extends beyond questionnaires; it is also changing the process of transmitting survey data to central locations. Here, we can use the notion of telesurveys (Nathan, 2001) to denote telecommunication technology used for immediate transmission of responses to the survey organization when a respondent is remote from the interviewer (e.g. CATI) or there is no interviewer (i.e. CSAQ).

Equally important, although less visible, is therevolutionaryroleofICT—particularlythe Internet—in the administration of the survey process. Contemporary surveys often involve hundreds of interviewers and thousands of questionnaires, so effective monitoring of this process is unthinkable without corresponding ICT support, which is now increasingly moving to the Internet (Cowling, 2005).

All these Internet related changes stimulate the perception of survey data collection as a business process. Survey organizations regularly face standard managerial issues such as returns on ICT investment, and they permanently deal with monitoring of the processes with cost optimizations and complex schemes for assuring quality standards (Biemer & Lyberg, 2003). Therefore, survey organizations increasingly apply project management tools and benchmarking approaches. The modern survey data collection process is thus shaped not only by methodological issues but also by business principles. They are becoming increasingly intertwined, because they are both so closely related to the growing role of ICT.

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