1. F2: Data Beyond Numbers: Using Data Creatively for Research
Room: Lachine
Session Chair: Mary Luebbe, University of British Columbia
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2. The truth is out there Karsten Boye Rasmussen
associate professor,
Department of Marketing and Management
University of Southern Denmark
Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark
fax:
organization and information technology
business intelligence
strategic organization design
'it, communication and organization'
Editor of the IASSIST Quarterly
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3. The data is out there The truth is out there Point of departure
Use of data => documentation
Use of Internet for research
Relying on the Stimulus-Response contract
The potential of utilizing non-reactive data: s
blogs
web-logs (on hits, visits, users, etc.)
web-sites and links
paradata
Mixing methods
Having complete, reliable, and accessible resources
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4. Data, use, metadata and documentality
"if information is data plus context, knowledge is information plus experience" (Levy & Powell, 2005)
data is description - of the world or objects in the world
description of data - is metadata
DDI 'The Data Documentation Initiative'
The quality measures of validity, reliability, accuracy, precision, bias, representativity, etc.
only available through the documentation of the data
the metadata
High documentality means the dataset is 'pattern' & 'model'
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5. Errors in survey data Acquirering primary data
survey is the "ability to estimate with considerable precision the percentage of a population that has a particular attribute by obtaining data from only a small fraction of the total population" (Dillman, 2007)
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6. Internet & research a shift in the medium for data collection
self administered internet surveys
web surveys
surveys
with links
the link points to a web-questionnaire
a mixed-mode within the Internet media
with attached questionnaire
the questionnaire in software formats (Word)
text without attachments or links - answering mail
3-5 questions
PLUS
non-reactive data
web
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7. Web survey - some problems
respondents have uneven accessibility to the Internet
unevenness in regard to the technical abilities:
bandwidth, computing power, and software (web-browsers)
however general web-site competences do exist
and telephone ownership is now too widespread
- an other medium is needed
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8. Web survey - the many pros
some reliable registers do exist
random selection - but not randomly generated ;-)
CAxI (Computer assisted telephone interviewing)
more complicated structures possible in the answering
software will enforce consistent rule following
experiments using different sequencing of questions
the use of paradata in web (later)
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9. Web survey - the respondent
Internet coverage, sampling, and the right respondent
sampling is not secured by a large number of respondents
the problem of self-selection
a systematic bias
have to secure the right - or at least only one -respondent on the inquiry
the new problem of a 150 per cent answer rate
log-in procedure with a PIN-code is recommended
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10. Web survey - success and hazard
quicker turnaround than through the postal or face-to-face questionnaire
raising the data quality by securing timely data
the Internet surveys have a much lower 'marginal cost'
with the Internet and supportive software for web surveys
many more surveys are taking place
maybe too many
respondents tend to be more reluctant to participate in surveys
low response rates
as shown in surveys 
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11. Secondary data – a richness of data
The data is already out there - ready to use
data is being made available and retrievable
raising the data quality through a higher documentation level
... a long list ... of pros for secondary data
for some areas the complete data is available
as the data in the operational system of the company
who bought what, when, and where?
the electronic traces left by the human behavior
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12. Online behavior / traces / Non-reactive
Investigating the sources
e.g. s
fields
sender, date, subject, response - a network
content analysis
Sender as node
Receiver as node
Response and initiator on a web-list
Subject as id of a thread
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13. Link Analysis – Graph Theory
nodes & edges
node: has names and properties: phones, doctors, web-pages, ers
edge: pair of nodes connected by a relationship
often communication
fully connected graph
path:
an ordered sequence of nodes connected by edges
Berry s
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14. Online behavior / traces / Non-reactive
Investigating the sources
s (just mentioned earlier)
sender, date, subject, response - a network
blogs
the web-sites and the web
all these have ethical as well as legal implications (Allen)
Research into the virtual
Logs of behavior
web-log
paradata
ISP-log (internet service provider)
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15. Web-log analysis hits, pages, visits, users of a web-site
cookies and explicit user log-in
'click-stream analysis' CLF (Common Log File)
pages where the session stops?
patterns of web-movements that explain the stops
going in circles on a web site?
behavior from non-buyers and buyers
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16. Paradata in surveys web-log of the process of answering a web survey
timing of the respondent's progression in shifting the web page
paradata is data about the process of data collection (Couper)
collection at the client-side (Heerwegh)
JavaScript can trace - with timing - different types of answering mechanisms:
drop-down lists
radio-buttons
click-items
give value etc.
and client-side can also track how the respondent has changed the answers
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17. Med fokus på kunden Customizing speciallavet til kunden, kundens ønske
mass-customization
Personalizing
opbygget efter kundens behov
som automatisk aflæst
gennem kundens transaktioner
og andre kunders transaktioner
Discriminizing?
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18. Analyzing virtual communities
Amazon
first among communities of costumers
making other customer comments and evaluations available
using their behavior – linking the books bought and customers
many more sites of communities
lists
blogs
dating sites
potential in personal links as in Linkedin.com
and in the constructed virtual reality of 'Second Life' …
or the links contained in the web itself
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19. Network
Live
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20. Mixed modes and mixed methods
modes of surveys with questionnaires
postal, with interviewer, face-to-face or telephone, or web-mode
mixed-mode has the ability to reduce non-response
'sequential mixed-mode ... do not pose any problems' (de Leeuw)
but different modes often produce different results (Dillman)
the 'unimode design'
later a mode-specific design taking full advantage of the mode used
'mixed methods' more the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods - and S-R and non-reactive data
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21. Conclusion more data is out there as traces of actual behavior get it!
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22. ? Got it? Thanks Karsten Boye Rasmussen SDU
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23. Abstract
The Internet has presented a welcome media for the traditional research as found in Internet surveys. The price of conducting surveys has gone down and the following higher frequent occurrence of surveys has also brought the focus to some of the central drawbacks of conducting surveys. We are continuously battling the challengers for the validity of the results obtained through the survey design because of the bias present in low response rates. This presentation will exemplify how the electronic traces of human behavior supplies a new area of valid non-reactive data that adds complete, reliable, and easily accessible resources for analysis. Both s and blogs can be the basis for content analysis as well as for structural or network analysis. The electronic traces of behavior exemplified by click-streams of web behavior can be used stand alone or enhance web-surveys through paradata. Lastly, the Internet itself presents an area of research.
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