Does the use of mobile devices (tablets and smartphones) affect survey quality and choice behaviour in web surveys?

Liebe, Ulf; Glenk, Klaus; Oehlmann, Malte; Meyerhoff, Jürgen (2015). Does the use of mobile devices (tablets and smartphones) affect survey quality and choice behaviour in web surveys? Journal of Choice Modelling, 14(March), pp. 17-31. Elsevier 10.1016/j.jocm.2015.02.002

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Web surveys are becoming increasingly popular in survey research including stated preference surveys. Compared with face-to-face, telephone and mail surveys, web surveys may contain a different and new source of measurement error and bias: the type of device that respondents use to answer the survey questions. This is the first study that tests whether the use of mobile devices, tablets or smartphones, affects survey characteristics and stated preferences in a web-based choice experiment. The web survey on expanding renewable energy production in Germany was carried out with 3182 respondents, of which 12% used a mobile device. Propensity score matching is used to account for selection bias in the use of mobile devices for survey completion. We find that mobile device users spent more time than desktop/laptop users to answer the survey. Yet, desktop/laptop users and mobile device users do not differ in acquiescence tendency as an indicator of extreme response patterns. For mobile device users only, we find a negative correlation between screen size and interview length and a positive correlation between screen size and acquiescence tendency. In the choice experiment data, we do not find significant differences in the tendency to choose the status quo option and scale between both subsamples. However, some of the estimates of implicit prices differ, albeit not in a unidirectional fashion. Model results for mobile device users indicate a U-shaped relationship between error variance and screen size. Together, the results suggest that using mobile devices is not detrimental to survey quality.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Sociology

UniBE Contributor:

Liebe, Ulf

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology

ISSN:

1755-5345

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Ulf Liebe

Date Deposited:

07 Apr 2016 08:03

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:53

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.jocm.2015.02.002

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.79521

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/79521

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