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Attitudes of online panel members to mobile application based research

Robert Pinter

WebDataNet Conference 2015University of Salamanca28.05.2015.

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Smartphone research as a methodological topic

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New methodological questions due to mobiles

• role of mobile phones in sampling • impact of smart technology on research • mixed-mode and multiple devices • mobile web surveys • effect of the use of mobile devices in a web

panel• …• But what is about mobile app research?

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Initial questions for mobile app research

• What are the characteristics of respondents with smartphones compared to those who don’t have this device?

• Who is willing to download a research application among them and who is not willing?

• Who participates in research (completes the research tasks and questionnaires)?

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Research background

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VeVa panel / app as an example for RoR

• VeVa (Véleményem Van) is a Hungarian online research panel

• its new research application will be introduced later in 2015

• VeVa smartphone research app is mainly for surveys, but it can be applied for diary, ethnographic and location based research as well.

• targets are consumers (members of VeVa panel); • access is closed (available only for members: a user

needs a username and password to login) • free to download

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Research on mobile app in VeVa panel

• a survey was carried out about mobile app research in October 2014 among VeVa panel members

• Aims of this research:– to understand the characteristics of those panel

members who would download the research application and to identify their interests in certain research types.

– to see if there is any difference between those panel members who would download the research application and those who would not.

– to find out what is the reason behind “rejection” and what arguments can be provided to convince those who are not willing to download the app.

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Background variables

• what variables have correlations with willingness to download the research applications– socio-demographic variables– smartphone and application using habits– other background variables: • possession of loyalty cards • frequency of legal gambling activities• free time activities• religion • political orientation

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Data collection

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Data collection

• online survey research was carried out in October 2014 • sample size was relatively big (N=2.028) compared to the

total size of the panel (~15.000). • survey has taken into account the usual response rate in VeVa

online surveys (~30%), actual response rate was 26%. • bigger than usual sample size was intentional because we

planned to form different groups of the respondents to address further questions

• used quota method for sampling from the panel (gender, age and region quotas) in order to make our findings to follow the structure of Hungarian adult (older than 18-years-old) population

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Questionnaire structure

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Research results

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Accepters, rejecters and uncertain respondents

• 61% of respondents (N=1.227) had smartphones within our sample:– Accepters: 42% of smartphone owners reported they

were willing to download the research application– Rejecters: 35% rejected it – Uncertain: 23% were uncertain

• After giving extra information to rejecters / uncertain:– Accepters: 57%– Rejecters: 26% permanently rejected it – Uncertain: 16% remained uncertain

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Reasons of uncertainty or rejection: first round

• proportions of those who rated the given reason with 3 or 4 in a 1-4 scale:– there is not enough free time to participate in mobile

research: 61%– there is not enough information to decide about the use of

research application: 53%– an expectation that use of research application can cause

extra costs (most probably because of limited mobile broadband plan of respondents): 45%

– would participate only in some research projects but less likely in others: 44%

– afraid of that use of research application would heavily drain battery of smartphone: 43%

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Reasons of rejection / uncertainty: second round

• After asking about the reasons for rejection we gave specific information to previously chosen concerns by respondents.

• 27% of rejecters and uncertain respondents could be convinced to download the application,

• 28% of them remained uncertain and 45% rejected again to download research app.

• Main reasons of rejection in second round (N=502) was cumulated percent of mentions as 1st, 2nd and 3rd reasons:– there is not enough free time to participate in mobile research: 63%– there is not enough information to decide about the use of research application:

38%– other: 37% (N=134). Small screen size (N=36), prefers computer to fill in

questionnaires (N=21), smartphone is used mainly for voice calls (N=13).– afraid of that use of research application would heavily drain battery of smartphone:

32%– would participate only in some research projects but less likely in others: 30%

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Correlation between downloading research application and background variables

• 19 variables have been identified during the research as significant ones (which have medium, weak or very weak connection to the three groups)– nearly half of them related to smartphones and their

use– 4 variables are socio-demographic (2 of them are

economic)– social factors such as religious or political orientation,

leisure time preferences or gambling habits have only weak connections to the three groups

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Socio-demographic differences between groups

• certain socio-demographic variables had correlation with willingness to download the research application (only week or very week connections):– age (with increasing age willingness of downloading the

app is decreasing), –monthly personal income (respondents with no personal

income are more open), – labour market status (students are more open to the

research app, while pensioners are less open)–main earner (more willingness to download the app if

respondent is not the main earner in the household)

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Conclusions

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Reasons of rejection: giving more information

• Reasons of rejection show that panel members don’t have enough information about the nature and functionality of the VeVa smartphone research application.

• We need to provide more information before asking to download the real app.

• "Other" as third reason had also an important message: we didn’t think about every concerns when we designed the questionnaire – add the three insights to the original list of 8 arguments when we integrate the download of application into our recruitment process: – small screen size– prefers computer to fill in questionnaires– smartphone is used mainly for voice calls

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Slight difference in socio-demographic profile

• There is little difference between app accepters, app rejecters and uncertain respondent from a socio-demographic point of view.

• It means two things: – First, we need to find further variables if we want to

explain why certain panel members are open to our smartphone research app and others are uncertain or reject it.

– Second, this result is a very good news from smartphone research perspective: smartphone application based research can be carried out without the fear that participants are completely different in socio-demographic categories

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Smartphone using habits are decisive

• general application using habits determine utmost the research app downloading preferences: – if someone downloads often applications, – use them regularly – has already plenty of app on his smartphone,

he will more likely download the research app and give a chance to it (these connections are still medium strong only)

22©2013 eNET Internetkutató Kft. Minden jog fenntartva!

Thank you for your attention!Robert Pinter, Head of Mobile ResearcheNET Internet Research Ltd.Corvinus University of Budapestrobert.pinter@enet.hu twitter: @probeszskype: probesz