PARTE IV: LA MIRADA DE RATZINGER A LA RELACIÓN ENTRE
III. La tarea común de judíos y cristianos
3.6.1 Online surveys
There has been an increase in the use of online surveys, and the accessibility of online resources in the English-speaking Western world, which has led to unprecedented access to online populations, both representative of the general population, as well as providing
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new access to what used to be ‘challenging to reach’ sub-segments of the population (Llieva et al., 2002; Andrews et al., 2003; Konstan et al., 2005). Although at one time the telephone was the primary collection mode for commercial surveys, over 60% of
commercial studies were conducted online in 2015, with a projected growth rate of 8% per year (CASRO, 2015 cited by Hulland et al., 2018).
English-speaking nations have some of the highest rates of internet access [Australia (88.2% internet penetration), Canada (90.1% internet penetration), the UK (94.8% internet penetration), the US (87.9% internet penetration)]. This pervasiveness of internet access allows for internet-based research in the Western World on a level previously not available globally (Internet World Stats, 2017). The expanded reach not only allows for a broad geographic representation of a population, but it also allows easier access to target populations.
While traditional research methods find it challenging to reach a large number of demographically similar people (e.g., mothers between the ages of 25-34 years, with children between the ages of 2-6 years), concentrated groups of specific demographically similar consumers are easier to access online through commercial consumer research companies, virtual communities, newsgroups, chat rooms, and message board
communities.
Computerized surveys allow for the easy introduction of randomization within the question order (where appropriate). This helps to prevent order bias (i.e., when a consumer is asked to respond to a series of similar questions in a row), as well as ensuring that all participants have a consistent and controlled survey experience. While no research methodology is perfect, some of the challenges with online surveys such as self-selection bias or respondent validation can be addressed through the use of a robust sample size and thoughtful programming logic (Nardi, 2016).
A portion of the research was conducted using respondents in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US. These four countries were used to compare and contrast trends and were chosen as all four are English-speaking countries, with populations that consume large quantities of fast-food. Similar global fast-food restaurants are found in all four of these countries, and there is a familiarity with the McDonald’s brand. With fast-food consumption on the rise over the past several years, there is a growing concern in these countries around children’s healthy eating practices (WHO, 2016)
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3.6.2 Survey sample
With a target sample size ranging from 100 to 400 respondents depending on the survey, and an internet access rate of over 87% in the four countries of interest, the research should be able to access a representative group of parents with children under the age of 6, such that the results of the research can be applied to the larger population. Samples beyond 400 respondents per country were not targeted, due to diminishing returns (Barlett
et al., 2001; Pew Research, 2018).
For example, in Canada, where the national population is approximately 35 million people, there are over 2 million parents with a child aged 6 or younger (Statistics Canada, 2015). With a population size in the millions, it is expected that the target population is large enough that it will not be difficult to make electronic contact.
The thesis research focused primarily on the mothers and fathers of children aged 6 years and younger. Millennial parents were of particular interest as a subgroup, as were
Millennials who are not yet parents, but who are the future nutritional gatekeepers. Research subjects included the direct observation of parental interactions with children in fast-food restaurants. Children (age 4, 5 and 6) participated in the card sort exercise.
The online survey methodology used for this thesis research allowed for a number of key research objectives to be met, including:
(i) The data collected was demographically diverse and large enough in sample size to allow for testing of population level hypotheses.
(ii) The data set collected allowed for subset comparisons within the populations to be examined for statistically significant differences.
(iii) The survey, by being fielded in 4 countries, allowed for cross-country comparisons of the data sets.
3.6.3 Commercial survey technology and respondent panels
Using commercially available survey technology minimizes the computer programming resources required to develop, launch, and analyse a broad survey (Andrews etal., 2003). An additional benefit of these online panels is that they allow the respondents time to answer the surveys at times convenient to them, hopefully resulting in better thought out responses.
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There are now numerous global companies that offer these commercial products with pre- screened global populations. Examples of such companies are FocusVision, GfK,
Mindfield Online Internet Panels, SSI (Survey Sampling International), and Toluna. For the majority of the surveys fielded, the company Toluna was used.
3.6.3.1 Toluna survey software
Toluna (www.toluna-group.com) is an established online market research company, which provides paid access to consumer panels in over 68 countries. They provide on-demand access to an online population of 21 million+ consumers. Panel sizes for the four countries under study were as follows: Australia - 224,700; Canada - 357,000; the UK- 672,400; the US: 3,057,300. Members of their panels register and create an extensive profile, which is then used to determine if the criteria match the survey demographics requested.
Researchers submit the questions using the Toluna framework and pay a fee to perform the survey. The fee is dependent on the number of questions and respondents.
Respondents are paid by accumulation of points, which they can convert into cash or gift cards. The average survey takes 15 to 20 minutes.
The inclusion of an incentive helps to create a more representative respondent population. The characteristics of the panel respondents are better able to reflect a wider population sample, as panellists are drawn from a larger pool (e.g., the UK Toluna panel is over 672,000 members). The use of a paid panel, as opposed to a convenience or snowball sampling technique, allows for increased diversity of respondents, with a cross section of geographic locations, education levels, incomes, and ages, which convenience sampling may not have provided to the same degree. This thesis research focused primarily on millennial parents, a tech-savvy demographic, with high access to the internet. As such, an online panel can provide reasonable representation of the population of interest, allowing for generalization of the findings.
3.6.3.2 Pre-test of surveys
Prior to fielding a survey, smaller trial sample sizes (15-30 respondents) were fielded to test the logistics of the software in order to have some initial data to evaluate. This
allowed for further refinement prior to fielding a robust sample size. The respondents were drawn from co-workers and friends, with demographics of the participants not nationally or demographically representative of the population. The data from these initial trials was not used for any of the final analytics.
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