Principles of Survey Research

Seven building blocks. That's all you need to get started. Here we stack them from the bottom up.

In these lecture notes you'll get to know every aspect of survey research. Starting with the elementary foundations, moving through questionnaire development, sampling and data analysis, all the way to reporting and presenting your results.

1. Introduction

What market research is, what surveys are good for — and what they're not. An overview of the core concepts and the map of market research.

• 1.1 Market Research and Surveys
• 1.2 Typology of Market Research

2. Survey: Measurement and Scaling

How to make opinions, attitudes and latent constructs measurable. Comparative and non-comparative scales, reliability and validity.

• 2.1 Introduction
• 2.2 Comparative Scales
• 2.3 Non-Comparative Scales
• 2.4 Latent Constructs
• 2.5 Reliability and Validity

3. Questionnaire

The hands-on work at the item level. How to phrase questions, increase willingness to respond, and order your questions sensibly.

• 3.1 Asking Questions
• 3.2 Handling Inability to Answer
• 3.3 Handling Unwillingness to Answer
• 3.4 Increasing Willingness to Answer
• 3.5 Question Order
• 3.6 What Comes Next?

4. Sampling

Who you survey and how many. Random and non-random samples, when each one fits — and how to calculate the sample size you need.

• 4.1 Non-Random Samples
• 4.2 Random Samples
• 4.3 Choosing Between Random and Non-Random Samples
• 4.4 Sample Size

5. Data Analysis — Statistical Techniques

What the answers mean. An overview of descriptive and inferential statistics — from simple frequency counts through crosstabs to hypothesis testing.

• 5.1 Descriptive Statistics: Displaying and Presenting Data
  • 5.1.1 Summarizing Qualitative Data
  • 5.1.2 Summarizing Quantitative Data
  • 5.1.3 Numerical Summary of Data
  • 5.1.4 Crosstabs
• 5.2 Inferential Statistics: Can the Results Be Generalized to the Population?
  • 5.2.1 Hypothesis Testing
  • 5.2.2 Strength of Association in Crosstabs
  • 5.2.3 Relationship Between Two (Metric) Variables

6. Advanced Techniques of Market Research

Conjoint analysis, market simulations, segmentation and perceptual maps. Tools for questions that go beyond standard statistics.

• 6.1 Conjoint Analysis
• 6.2 Market Simulations
• 6.3 Segmentation
• 6.4 Perceptual Maps

7. Reporting Results

The final step: presenting findings so they're understood and used.

You'll find the complete lecture notes on our lecture-notes page. You're welcome to use them in your own events, courses and seminars — please note the license notice on the last slide. They're distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.