Quantitative Research
11/15/17
Breaking down the wall between quant and qual
Recently we had a project involving a large survey with numerous open-end questions. Taking the divide and conquer approach, it was all hands-on deck to quickly code the thousands of responses. As a qualitative researcher, coding survey responses can feel like a foreign process and I often found myself overthinking both my codes and the […]
By Molly HaganRead More
11/5/17
The Four Cornerstones of Survey Measurement: Part 2
Part Two: Reliability and Validity The first blog in this series argued that precision, accuracy, reliability, and validity are key indicators of good survey measurement. It described precision and accuracy and how the researcher aims to balance the two based on the research goals and desired outcome. This second blog will explore reliability and validity. […]
By Matt BruceRead More
11/3/17
Keeping it constant: 3 things to keep in mind with your trackers
When conducting a program evaluation or customer tracker (e.g., brand, satisfaction, etc.), we are often collecting input at two different points in time and then measuring the difference. While the concept is straightforward, the challenge is keeping everything as consistent as possible so we can say that the actual change is NOT a result of […]
By David KennedyRead More
10/30/17
The Four Cornerstones of Survey Measurement: Part 1
Part One: Precision and Accuracy Years ago, I worked in an environmental lab where I measured the amount of silt in water samples by forcing the water through a filter, drying the filters in an oven, then weighing the filters on a calibrated scale. I followed very specific procedures to ensure the results were precise, […]
By Matt BruceRead More
5/31/17
Thinking strategically about benchmarks
When our clients are thinking about data that they would like to collect to answer a question, we sometimes are asked about external benchmarking data. Basically, when you benchmark your data, you generally are asking how you compare to other organizations or competitors. While external benchmarks can be useful, there are a couple of points […]
By Kate DarwentRead More
12/22/16
Does This Survey Make Sense?
It’s pretty common for Corona to combine qualitative and quantitative research in a lot of our projects. We will often use qualitative work to inform what we need to ask about in qualitative phases of the research, or use qualitative research to better understand the nuances of what we learned in the quantitative phase. But […]
By Mollie BoettcherRead More
11/23/16
Ensuring your graphs are honest
For our firm, the very idea of fake news goes against our mission to: Provide accurate and unbiased information and counsel to decision makers. The realm of fake news spans the spectrum of misleading to outright lying. It is the former that got us thinking about how graphs are sometimes twisted to mislead, while not […]
By David KennedyRead More
8/2/16
Research on Research: Boosting Online Survey Response Rates
David Kennedy and Matt Herndon, both Principals here at Corona, will be presenting a webinar for the Market Research Association (MRA) on August 24th. The topic is how to boost response rates with online surveys. Specifically, they will be presenting research Corona has done to learn how minor changes to such things as survey invites can […]
By Sarah SvitakRead More
7/12/16
Do you have kids? Wait – let me restate that.
Karla Raines and I had dinner with another couple last week that shares our background and interest in social research. We were talking about the challenges of understanding the decisions of other people if you don’t understand their background, and how we can have biases that we don’t even realize. It brought me back to […]
By Kevin RainesRead More
5/20/16
There is more to a quality survey than margin of error
One of the areas in which Corona excels is helping our clients who aren’t “research experts” to understand how to do research in a way that will yield high-quality, reliable results. One of the questions we are frequently asked is how many completed surveys are necessary to ensure a “good survey.” While the number of […]
By Matt HerndonRead More