La declaración de asegurabilidad

(the web) as a means of collecting large amounts o f data is. increasing dramatically not only

among survey professionals and large organisations but also in other fields o f management

study. However, management accounting research using the web survey method is very scant

despite this mode of data collection becoming established in other fields o f management

study, e.g. marketing. One recent example o f a management accounting research using a web

survey is Lowe and Locke’s (2005) study of UK academics perception o f the ranking o f peer

reviewed accounting journals. The scarcity o f studies using the web survey method may be

because most management accounting researchers have little expertise in the use o f the web

technology for research purposes. Although there are similarities between the mail and web

survey methods, the construction and successful deployment o f web surveys demand different

skills sets from those required by the traditional mail survey, i.e. computer programming

ability and webpage design skills. With the growing number o f internet users and ongoing

advances in computing devices and computer programming, the use o f the web to conduct

surveys and collect large amounts o f data is likely' to become prevalent in both .academia and

industry. This presents huge opportunities as well as. significant challenges.

19 The 8 journals included in Van der Stede et al. (2005) study are 4 0 5 , CAR, J A E , JAR J M A R , M A R , TAR, and

Chapter 4 Research D esign & M ethodology 106

Web surveys are very attractive compared to the traditional mail or telephone surveys because

it is relatively much cheaper to deploy (no interviewer, stationery or postage required). It also

provides instant access to a wider audience irrespective of their geographical location; and by

the same token achieves faster response rates. In addition, it offers the facility for the direct

recording and automatic encoding of survey responses in a format readable by most statistical

packages like Excel, SPSS and SAS. Moreover, this is achieved while the survey is still in

progress enabling survey responses and other information to be captured in real time and in

the desired format. Thus it reduces considerably, and in some cases completely eliminates, the

data encoding and entry time required by the traditional survey methods. Furthermore this

eliminates potential data errors introduced by such manual data encoding and data entry. For

instance, it avoids missing responses and ambiguous ticks. It is therefore not inconceivable

that in the near future web surveys may dominate mail surveys as the method for large data

collection in management accounting research.

4.3.3 Issues in C onstructing a W eb Survey

Web surveys are similar to mail surveys in many respects and thus are not immune to some of

the issues that are generally identified with the survey methodology; rather they raise new

dimensions to them. Salant & Dillman (1994) identified the main sources o f errors that affect

the ‘accuracy’ of survey results as coverage error, sampling error, measurement error, and

non-response error. Coverage error results when the known probability o f including all the

units o f a population in the sample is not greater than zero. This can be a great concern for

web surveys particularly when the target population may not all have access to the internet.

On the other hand, sampling error results when only a subset o f the survey population is

surveyed and this is completely unavoidable except if the entire population of interest is

surveyed. Related to this, non-response error results when a significant number of non-

respondents from the survey sample are different from the respondents in a manner that

Chapter 4 Research D esign & M ethodology 107

they would have provided a significantly different distribution o f answers to the issues of interest than that obtained from those who responded.

Finally, measurement error results from inaccurate responses to questions. This may be due to

poorly worded questions and/or the survey method. However, Salant and Dillman (1994) note

that measurement error is more critical for questions dealing with sensitive or abstract ideas.

Sensitive questions were more likely to result in measurement error in face to face or

telephone interviews compared to other survey methods because of the personal contact

between respondents and the researcher. On the other hand, abstract idea questions were more

critical with mail surveys and by extension web surveys because the researcher is not

physically present to clarify respondents’ misunderstandings. This may be more acute in mail

surveys than in web surveys as web surveys are not as limited in the format and presentation

o f additional information as the mail surveys. For example, further information explaining a

concept can be provided by way of pop-up widows that are activated by the respondent only

when more clarification is required, and so it does not obstruct the main survey if not needed.

Thus more interactivity can be built into web surveys than is possible with mail surveys.

In this study, coverage and measurement error are not much o f an issue by the fact that the

target sample was pre-identified and the questionnaire sufficiently developed in prior

discussions with the target organisation using the Microsoft Word version o f the survey.20

Moreover, staff in the case organisation all had internet access, and worked with computers

and emails regularly in their day to day work. Several pilot tests of the word version o f the

survey had also been carried out both within and without the target organisation. However, in

designing the survey web pages several other factors were of particular concern, some relating

to non-response error. The factors included ease o f access and navigation o f the survey,

identification o f individual responses and issues o f confidentiality, and the integrity o f the

20 A whole region o f ABC LLP was identified as the sample, but thereafter it is a population as the whole region was included in the survey.

Chapter 4 Research D esign & M ethodology 108

data collected. Therefore, the main aim in the design of the web survey was to create web

pages that were accessible only to the target sample and that would enhance the likelihood of

the target sample responding, and doing so in the manner intended. Another objective was to

integrate the web pages with a database such that responses to each web page were

automatically captured on the database, and to ensure that the data were not ‘corrupted’ by

uninvited responses from people straying onto the survey on the web. Therefore, secure but

accessible and easy to navigate web pages needed to be constructed such that the chances of

responding to the survey did not depend on a number factors such as: the computer skills of

the respondents; the transmission limitations, the computer equipment or internet browser

used by respondents. Thus, the web pages were generally constructed within the perceived

limits o f what respondents’ computers, browsers, and transmission lines can deal with. During

the web survey construction, tests were run using different computers and screen sizes,

different operating systems, different browsers and from three different locations using

different connection speeds.

4.3.4 Description of the W eb Survey

The web survey pages started with a welcome screen that introduced the survey and thanked

respondents for agreeing to participate in the survey. Screen shots o f the web pages are

presented in Appendix 3. The ease o f completing the survey and the anticipated completion

time were also emphasised, while providing instructions on how to progress to the next page

and the rest o f the survey. The page after the welcome screen required participants to login

into the survey using a pre-assigned username and password. The required username and

password was earlier communicated to the target sample in the cover email invitation sent out

on behalf o f their regional Chairman. Prior to the cover email, an earlier mail had been sent

out on behalf o f the regional Chairman intimating staff o f the survey. In the cover email, the

web link to the survey was included such that a mouse click on the link opened up the survey

welcome screen page on their internet browser. Since anonymity was agreed beforehand with