In recent years, internet surveys have been widely used by researchers and companies as a means of data collection. However, few IS studies have discussed the validation of internet survey research. From the perspective of the positivist and quantitative research, studies that fail to organize a scientific and rigorous research design will harm their finding’s validity, reliability and generalizability. In turn; their contributions to the literature and implications for business are limited. Building on a review of past marketing research studies which were well-developed in Internet survey methodological validation, this study illustrated nine issues for IS researchers to re-consider in their empirical Internet surveys. Alternative ways to enhance the necessary rigor of the survey quality in term of the Internet survey types, population, and pros./cons. of each survey type were also proposed. This paper should serve as a useful guide for IS researchers in the planning and execution of an Internet survey, or in judging the inferential ability of other internet survey research. (Author/publisher)
Abstract