Questionnaire Design Process
Ing. Klára Kašparová, Ph.D.
Department of Corporate Economy
e-mail: klarad@econ.muni.cz

Example no. 1
oWhich one in your opinion is a better cuisine?
oa. Czech Fast-food b. American Fast-food
o
oWould you say that McDonald’s is healthy?
oa. yes b. No c. I do not know
o
oWhich location of McDonald’s you go more often in Brno?
oa. on Masaryk's near the main railway station
ob. Olympia Shopping Mall
oc. on the Freedom Square (Náměstí Svobody)
o
oWhat do you like about McDonalds the most? (Write your 3 main reasons)
o………………………………………………………………………………………………….
o

Simplified model of research
•Source: Punch, Developing effective research proposals, 2006 -
http://books.google.cz/books?id=PFHV8oajR7gC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Developing+effective+research+p
roposals+punch&hl=cs&sa=X&ei=JdGbUPWdEYTMsgaaqYCIDA&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA
•Test hypo-theses
•Design
•Data collection
•Data analysis
•Pre-empirical stage
•Empirical stage
•Context
•Research area
•Literature
•Topic
•Research questions
•Hypotheses
•Theory

Hierarchy of concepts
oResearch area
oResearch topic(s)
oGeneral research questions
oSpecific research questions
oData collection questions
•Most general, most abstract
•Most specific, most concrete
•deduction
•induction
•Watch empirical criterion
•Source: Punch, Developing effective research proposals, 2006
•Ex: How To Measure Service Quality http://www.qualtrics.com/blog/how-to-measure-service-quality/

Example no. 2:
oResearch area
oCompetitiveness
oResearch topic
oFactors influencing competitiveness of companies
oGeneral research questions
o 1. What is the relationship between application of CSR activities and competitiveness of
companies?
o 2. To what extent companies use CSR activities?
o 3. What is the relationship between company characteristic and application of CSR activities?
o etc.
oSpecific research questions
o 2a. What is the frequency of used types of CSR activities in particular companies?
o 3a. Does the size of company (based on number of employees) affect frequency of used types of CSR
activities?
o 3b. Does the sector affect frequency of used types of CSR activities?
o etc. …

oData collection questions
•Information about sector was found in other way.
•Based on 2a
•Based on 3a
•Based on 3b
Example no. 2:

Another view on the process
w3241e05


Example no. 3
oOrganization XY is a citizens‘ association that tries to help to develop student life and to
strengthen identification of students with the Masaryk University. It provides discount card for
students.
o
oManagerial problem:
oCard sale volume is low. Why? What to do to increase the interest of students?
o
oAim of the research:
oIdentify the needs and interests of the target group, i.e. existing MU students.
o
oResearch questions:
No. 1: Why is the sale volume of card low?
oNo. 2: What to do to increase the interest of MU students?
No. 3: What discounts would be interesting for the students and what would led them to purchase the
card?
No. 4: What change would increase the sales of the cards?
No. 5: How to inform about the existence of the card?

Example no. 4
oAim of the research:
Specify as close as possible the target group of current students of bachelor's degree of the
Faculty of Economics and Administration.
o
oUsing the results:
The results will be used to conduct communication campaigns aimed at this target group.
o
oHypotheses:
No. 1: More than 60 % of students of the Faculty of Economics and Administration has permanent
residence in South Moravian Region.
o
oNo. 2: 20 % of students of bachelor's degree of the Faculty of Economics and Administration has as
a first language German.
descriptive hypotheses

•Ex. no. 5:
validity


Example no. 6
o3. Please specify characteristics you tend to use when choosing restaurant:
oa. recommendations of my friends
ob. review on the Internet
oc. prices
od. type of food
oe. other. Please specify:………..
o
oThis question brings nominal data. It is related to the research question no. 1 Which factors
influence selection of a restaurant? The categories of answers were taken from the result of the
pilot study.
o

Pilot survey
o
oHow to proceed:
o
orewrite obtained information
o
olook for the action verb describing the behavior of employees of organization (E.g. clerk gave me
advice) or adjective which describes important characteristic of service (E.g. information panels
are clearly visible)
o
omake groups (categories) of similar answers
o
content analysis

o The aim of question was to identified positive and negative experiences of citizens during the
visit of concrete authority
o
oAnswer no. 1: …………. When I arrived, clerk doesn‘t look at me.
oAnswer no. 2: …………. Toilet was untidy. There was no toilet paper.
oAnswer no. 3: …………. There were a lot of people and only two chair.
oAnswer no. 4: …………. Clerk was personable. She said me hello and was smiling at me.
oAnswer no. 5: …………. There are no pens. So if you forget it, it is a big problem to fill in the
form.
oAnswer no. 6: …………. I was not waiting for a long time.
o
o Answers no. 1 and 4 say something about personnel
o Answer no. 2 about sanitary facility
o Answers no. 3 and 5 about convenience of visitors
o Answer no. 6 about waiting time
•Source: Lukášová et al., Měření spokojenosti občanů s veřejnými službami jakou součást řízení
kvality v organizacích veřejného sektoru, 2009, p. 83-86
Example no. 7

Basic types of survey questions
oopen-ended
oclosed-ended with ordered responses
oclosed-ended with unordered responses choice
opartially close-ended
odichotomous
ofilter
•Sources: http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/g3658-2.pdf,
http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/questype.php
•What would you like to see as the main program emphasis next year?
•What topic do you feel should be the main program emphasis for net year? (Circle number of your
answer.)
•1 effective parenting
•2 child development
•3 guidance and discipline
•4 communication
•5 other (please specify)
•---------------------------
•Which of these four topics would you most like to see as the primary program emphasis next year?
(Circle number of your answer.)
•1 effective parenting
•2 child development
•3 guidance and discipline
•4 communication
•How important to you are each of the following posiible program emphases? (Circle one for each
item.)
• none little some much
•A effective parenting 1 2 3 4
•B child development 1 2 3 4
•C guidance and discipline 1 2 3 4
•D communication 1 2 3 4
•Please enter your gender:
•□ male □ female
•Have you ever smoked marijuana?
•1 yes
•2 no
•If yes, about how many times have you smoked marijuana during the two weeks?
•A never
•B once
•C 2 to 5 times
•D 6 to 10 times
•E more than 10 times

Close- and open-ended questions
oClose-ended:
odifficult to design
oless time consuming for respondents
oprovide uniformity of questions and responses
ocan reduce/simplify the reality too much
osuggest ideas that the respondent would not otherwise have
oboring
o
o
oOpen-ended
oeasier to write
opermit creativity, self-expression, and richness of detail
otime consuming
odifferent respondents give different degrees of detail in answers
ocoding responses, comparisons and statistical analysis become difficult
•For more details please see:
http://environment.uwaterloo.ca/research/watgreen/projects/library/1020/ocq.html
content analysis

Example no. 8
o
oHow often during the past week were you bored?
o
oAnswer 1: Not often.
oAnswer 2: About 10% of the time.
oAnswer 3: Much less often than the mounth before.

Suggestion for asking survey questions
oAsk purposeful questions
o (quality of service of airline travel x questions about readings habits, possession of animal)
oAsk concrete questions, time limited
o (Did you enjoy the play? x Did you enjoy the first act of the play? x Did you find comedy scenes
in the play‘s first act funny?
oUse conventional language
o (Please try to define the degree of importance of individual stakeholder you have mentioned for
your company success in the market. x Please try to define the degree of importance of individual
subject you…)
o
oDon‘t use incomprehensible (unclear) phrasing
oAvoid abbreviations, jargon
oAvoid biasing words and phrases
oAvoid negative questions
oAvoid two-edged questions
•Sources: Fink, How to ask survey questions, 1995, p. 18-29 (SOC 481) a Lukášová et al., Měření
spokojenosti občanů s veřejnými službami jakou součást řízení kvality v organizacích veřejného
sektoru, 2009, p. 87-89

oAsk purposeful questions
oAsk concrete questions, time limited
oUse conventional language
o
oDon‘t use incomprehensible (unclear) phrasing
o (Is health care accessible in the town you live? – occurrence of general or specialized health
care, surgery hour, possibility of parking, within reach of public transport,…Place of residence? –
Brno, South Moravia, The Czech Republic, Lipová 41a,…)
oAvoid abbreviations, jargon
oAvoid biasing words and phrases
o (Unwillingness of workers discourages customer from the next visit.)
oAvoid negative questions
o (I don‘t agree that clerks aren‘t helpful.)
oAvoid two-edged questions
o (How often do you buy or read Times?)
•Sources: Fink, How to ask survey questions, 1995, p. 18-29 (SOC 481) a Lukášová et al., Měření
spokojenosti občanů s veřejnými službami jakou součást řízení kvality v organizacích veřejného
sektoru, 2009, p. 87-89
•
Suggestion for asking survey questions

Rules for construction of response categories
o
oResponse categorie must be:
o
oexhaustive
omutually exclusive
oset up to allow the respondent to provide multiple answers when relevant
owhen appropriate, provide for a „residual other“ category

Basic types of responses
ofree response (open-ended response)
oforced choice
olikert scales
omultiple choice
o
•Source: Lukášová et al., Měření spokojenosti občanů s veřejnými službami jakou součást řízení
kvality v organizacích veřejného sektoru, 2009, p. 89-92

Example no. 9

Completely unimportant
Unimportant
Important
Very important
Software price



Speed of reaction




Provided consultation




Providing services related to the use of software (installation and setup, hosting, training,
etc.).




Price of services




Sufficient amount and relevance of provided information on the website
Reviews
•1. Please rate the importance of the following criteria when selecting a supplier of license from
A.

Example no. 10
oResearch question no. 2:
oTo what extent do existing customers use services associated with license from M? Why don‘t they
use the services?
o
Explanation of formulation:
o?
o
oQuestions in questionnaire relating to RQ no. 1:
oQuestion no. 4 and 4.1
o
o4. Did your company use services related to licence from M (installation and setup, hosting,
training, etc.)?
o 1. yes
o 2. no
o If not: 4.1 Why your company did not use the services?
o a. we arrange for them by our own resources
o b. services are provided by other partner
o c. we do not need these services

Example no. 11
oResearch question: What is the buying behavior of the target group?
o SRQ no. 1
o SRQ no. 2: Where does the target group buy bathroom product range?
o SRQ no. 3
o …
o
oQuestion in the questionnaire related to the SRQ no. 2:
o   If you purchased the equipment to the bathroom, where did you go?
(scale: 1 definitely not, 2 probably not 2, 3 probably yes, 4 definitely yes)
o a. into large hobby market;
o b. into nationwide known bathroom stores;
o c. into store near my home;
o d. into an e-shop.

Example no. 11
oResearch question: What is the buying behavior of the target group?
o
o SRQ no. 1
o …
o SRQ no. 4: How does the number of offered brands affect buying behavior?
o
oQuestions in the questionnaire related to the SRQ no. 4:
o How do you know following brands of bathroom product range?
o a. RAKO yes x no
o b. OPOCZNO yes x no
o c. PARADYZ yes x no
o d. CERSANIT yes x no
o
o Do you remember other brands of the equipment of the bathroom?
o…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Types of instruction
o
o3 kinds of instructions are necessary
o(general, transitional, question answering)
o
o

oorder of the questions
o (easy-to-difficult progression, logical order,                     ? demographic questions
placement)
olength
overtical or horizontal format for answers
o
o
o
Format of the questionnaire
•Source: Bourque a Fielder, How to conduct self-administred and mail survey, 1995, p. 93-105 (SOC
481)

Format of the questionnaire
oassignment indexes to questions and answers
osize, fonts and highlighting of letters
oconsistency
o
o
o
o
ofree space
osplitting questions between pages
ocontrast
o

Pretesting the questionnaire
o= testing of the questionnaire on a small sample of respondents to identify and eliminate
potential problems.
o
oYou should find answers to the questions below:
oDoes each question measure what it is intended to measure?
oDo respondents understand all the words?
oAre questions interpreted similarly by all respondents?
oDoes each close-ended question have an answer that applies to each respondent?
oDoes the questionnaire create positive impression – one that motivates people to answer it?
oAre some responses missing?
oDoes any aspect of the questionnaire suggest bias on the part of the researcher?
o
•Source: http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/g3658-2.pdf

Administration of the questionnaire – cover letter
o14 kinds of information should be included:
o
oUse of letterhead
oInformation about sponsorship
oDates
oSalutation
oPurpose of the study
oReasons why an individual‘s participation is important
oIncentives to encourage respondent participation
oUse of advance letters
oHow material incentives will be provided or distributed
oRealistic estimate of the time required to complete the questionnaire
oHow and why the respondent was chosen
oExplanation of confidentiality and how the data will be handled
oProvision of a name and phone number to call for information
oWhen and how to return the questionnaire
•Source: Bourque a Fielder, How to conduct self-administred and mail survey, 1995, p. 105-133 (SOC
481)