Business Research Methods William G. Zikmund

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BusinessResearch MethodsWilliam G. Zikmund

• Chapter 15
• Questionnaire Design

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A QUESTIONNAIRE IS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE
QUESTIONS IT ASKS
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A Good Questionnaire Appears

• As easy to compose as a good poem
• But, it is usually the result of long,
  painstaking work
• Naïve newcomers who believe common sense and good
  grammar are all that are needed to construct a
  questionnaire soon learn hasty efforts are
  inadequate.

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Decisions in Questionnaire Design

• What should be the title of my survey?
• How do I introduce my topic? Do I need a cover
  letter?
• What instructions do I provide the respondent?
• What should be asked?
• How should each question be phrased?
• In what sequence should the questions be
  arranged?
• What questionnaire layout will best serve the
  research objectives?
• How should the questionnaire be pretested?
• Does the questionnaire need to be revised?
• (Note It probably will need to be revised
  several times.)

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What Should Be Asked?

• Questionnaire relevance
• Collect only the data necessary to solve the
  problem
• Be careful not to leave out needed variables
• Dont forget demographics and psychographics
• Questionnaire accuracy
• Information is reliable and valid.
• Question wording is critical to reduce error and
  increase accuracy.

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Phrasing Questions

• Open-ended questions
• Most beneficial in exploratory research
• Costs are much greater than for fixed due to
  coding, editing, and analyzing the data.
• Fixed-alternative questions
• Alternatives should be mutually exclusive
• Most questionnaires include both.

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Developing a Questionnaire

• No hard and fast rules
• Only guidelines

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The Art of Asking Questions

• Avoid Complexity use simple, conversational
  language
• Avoid leading and loaded questions
• Avoid ambiguity be as specific as possible
• Avoid double-barreled items
• Avoid making assumptions
• Avoid burdensome questions

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Questionnaire Design

• Question sequence
• Order bias
• Funnel technique from general to specific
• Filter questions helps minimize asking
  questions that are inapplicable
• Question layout
• Always Precode Questionnaires
• Do not overcrowd
• Make good use of white space
• Make questionnaire look (and actually) easy to
  complete
• Use transitions in the survey effectively to keep
  respondents going

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Pretesting is Important
Once your questionnaire is complete, pretest it
with a few respondents from your sample. Ask
them to please complete the survey. While they
are completing the survey or right after they
have completed the survey ask them to point out
any part of the survey (including all questions)
that are difficult, confusing, etc. This can
help insure your final survey works and that you
are not left without good data after data
collection.
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Layout for Internet Questionnaires

• Graphical User Interface (GUI)
• Paging layout going from screen to screen
• Scrolling layout gives the respondent the ability
  to scroll down
• Push buttons
• Status bar

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4 Common Question Displays on a Computer Screen

• Radio button
• Drop-down box
• Check box
• Open-ended boxes

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Software that Makes Questionnaires Interactive

• Boolean skip and branching logic
• hidden skip logic
• Variable piping software
• Allows answers from previous questions to be
  inserted into subsequent questions
• Error trapping
• forced answering software
• Interactive help desks

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WebSurveyor
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