Rainyday Insurance Adjusters Company
Institut f. Statistik u. Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie
1040 Wien, Wiedner Hauptstr. 8-10/107 AUSTRIA http://www.statistik.tuwien.ac.at
Benefits from using continuous rating scales in online survey research
H. Treiblmaier and P. Filzmoser
Forschungsbericht SM-2009-4
November 2009
Kontakt: P.Filzmoser@tuwien.ac.at
Benefits from Using Continuous Rating Scales in Online Survey Research
Horst Treiblmaier* Institute for Management Information Systems Vienna University of Economics and Business Augasse 2-6, 1090 Vienna, Austria1
Peter Filzmoser Department of Statistics and Probability Theory Vienna University of Technology Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, A-1040 Vienna, Austria
Abstract
The usage of Likert-type scales has become widespread practice in current IS research. Those scales require individuals to choose between a limited number of choices, and have been criticized in the literature for causing loss of information, allowing the researcher to affect responses by determining the range, and being ordinal in nature. The use of online surveys allows for the easy implementation of continuous rating scales, which have a long history in psychophysical measurement but were rarely used in IS surveys. This type of measurement requires survey participants to express their opinion in a visual form, i.e. to place a mark at an appropriate position on a continuous line. That not only solves the problems of information loss, but also allows for applying advanced robust statistical analyses. In this
1
Augasse 2-6, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: +43/1/31336/4480 Fax: +43/1/31336/746 E-Mail: Horst.Treiblmaier@wu.ac.at
1
paper we use a real-world sample and a simulation to illustrate how noise impacts our data set. A noise level of 10% has only a small effect on both classical and robust estimates, but when 20% of noise is added, the classical estimators become severely distorted. Continuous rating scales in combination with robust estimators turn out to
1040 Wien, Wiedner Hauptstr. 8-10/107 AUSTRIA http://www.statistik.tuwien.ac.at
Benefits from using continuous rating scales in online survey research
H. Treiblmaier and P. Filzmoser
Forschungsbericht SM-2009-4
November 2009
Kontakt: P.Filzmoser@tuwien.ac.at
Benefits from Using Continuous Rating Scales in Online Survey Research
Horst Treiblmaier* Institute for Management Information Systems Vienna University of Economics and Business Augasse 2-6, 1090 Vienna, Austria1
Peter Filzmoser Department of Statistics and Probability Theory Vienna University of Technology Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, A-1040 Vienna, Austria
Abstract
The usage of Likert-type scales has become widespread practice in current IS research. Those scales require individuals to choose between a limited number of choices, and have been criticized in the literature for causing loss of information, allowing the researcher to affect responses by determining the range, and being ordinal in nature. The use of online surveys allows for the easy implementation of continuous rating scales, which have a long history in psychophysical measurement but were rarely used in IS surveys. This type of measurement requires survey participants to express their opinion in a visual form, i.e. to place a mark at an appropriate position on a continuous line. That not only solves the problems of information loss, but also allows for applying advanced robust statistical analyses. In this
1
Augasse 2-6, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: +43/1/31336/4480 Fax: +43/1/31336/746 E-Mail: Horst.Treiblmaier@wu.ac.at
1
paper we use a real-world sample and a simulation to illustrate how noise impacts our data set. A noise level of 10% has only a small effect on both classical and robust estimates, but when 20% of noise is added, the classical estimators become severely distorted. Continuous rating scales in combination with robust estimators turn out to