Questionnaire Structure

The questionnaire starts with the introductory letter which is shown in Appendix B, and indicates that the gathered information will be used solely for academic purposes and it ensures confidentiality of data given by respondents. Dillman (2000) outlined some factors which the letter accompanying the questionnaire should cover to improve the response rate. Such factors include what the study is about and its usefulness, why the respondent is essential, a promise of confidentiality and being grateful to the respondents for their help. The respondents are advised that the survey is entirely voluntary and are free to withdraw at any time. The introductory letter addressed these points and was kept to only one page as suggested by Sudman and Bradburn (1982).

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The questionnaire consists of four sections. The questions in Section A (questions 1 to 10) are structured to elicit information regarding the respondents’ demographic background such as age, gender, educational qualification and marital status, etc. Section B (questions 11 to 16), asks questions on information about the respondents shopping patterns and behaviour such as how often, on average do you buy or sell products or services on the internet, how much on average are the sales you make online each month, etc. Section C (questions 17 to 26) asks questions on information about the products, items, goods, activities and services the respondents perform or buy and sell on the internet and also what they use e-commerce for. Also Question 27, in section C asks the respondents if they have any disability which they think would prevent them from buying/selling on the internet. The last section D (questions 28 to 58) asks the respondents’ attitude on how they feel when they perform different activities on the internet, towards various aspects like usefulness, ease of use, security, trust. It also requested respondents to indicate if they wished to receive a summary of the survey results or willing to participate in Study Two.

Table 4.2 Questionnaire Structure Summary

Section Questions Comments

A Q1 to Q10 Questions to elicit respondents’ background information on age, gender, education etc

B Q11 to Q16 Questions to elicit information on information on respondents shopping patterns and behaviour of shopping online

C Q17 to Q26

Q27

Questions to elicit information on respondents’ list of

products, items, goods, activities, and services they perform or buy and sell on the internet

Ouestion for the respondents to indicate if they have a disability that would prohibit them from engaging in e- commerce

D Q28 to Q58 Questions to elicit information on respondents’ perceived attitude on how they feel when they would perform different activities on the internet such as ease of use, security, trust.

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The Questionnaire Rationale table which illustrates the justification of the questions asked in the questionnaire can be viewed in Appendix B.

4.4.1.5 Questionnaire Administration

There are different ways used to administer a questionnaire namely: face to face, telephone and by post (Mcleod, 2014) and online. However, there are advantages and disadvantages for each technique which can be compared regarding the response rate, ability to produce a representative sample, limitations on questionnaire design, quality of responses and implementation problems (Sekaran, 2000). Mail questionnaires are particularly criticised on poor response rates and the quality of responses (Dillman, 2000). While it is accepted that there are disadvantages associated with the mail questionnaire, there are some advantages to using this method. Firstly, by using the mail questionnaire, it is possible to obtain a large enough sample to reduce sampling error to acceptable levels (Roberts, 1999; Dillman, 1991; Sekaran, 2000). Secondly, the costs usually are considerably less for a mail questionnaire than the face-to-face interview (Sekaran, 2000), and finally, the mail questionnaire does not introduce interviewer bias that is a potential problem for both face-to-face and telephone interviews. In this study, the questionnaire was administered by face-to-face, post and online.

4.4.2 Ethical Considerations

An application will be submitted to the Faculty of Technology Research Ethics Committee because as a researcher, one has to understand, abide by and follow the Research Ethics Policy and procedures of the University of Portsmouth. The researcher will undertake the training, ‘Designing Ethical research and preparing for ethical review’ delivered by the

Graduate school. The respondents are provided with information before completion of the

questionnaire. The act of completing the questionnaire and submitting is also considered to be informed consent. Due to the nature of the target group involved in this research, i.e. older people, no recruitment of participants or data collection could commence until an ethical review had been undertaken. This is done because human participants are involved (including data that is not in the public domain), and the research involved topics which some

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older people might consider sensitive due to their vulnerable nature. The researcher is mindful of the position they take (see Appendix A), and also asking respondents about the adoption of e-commerce could potentially be a sensitive issue because some of the questions asks them about their financial status, age, and emails. In this regard, the researcher will observe applicable ethical codes of conduct at all times throughout the study.

4.4.2.1 Recruitment Strategy

Data will be collected from older people who attend community day centers and through snow-balling and also online. Snow-ball or referral sampling is a technique where existing participants recruit future participants from among their acquaintances. Thus, the sample group appears to grow while gathering enough data to be useful for the research. The researcher choose this sampling technique because it is often used in hidden populations which are difficult for researchers to access, e.g., older people who are one of those populations.

This was also supported by Breakwell, Hammon, and Fife-Schaw (2003) who pointed out that older people were among some categories of people who are particularly difficult to interview. Nachmias and Nachmias (1976) suggest that the drawing of conclusions from a sample of a population derives from the need for researchers to be pragmatic and parsimonious because it may be too expensive or impossible or impractical for all targeted respondents to take part. However, inferences based on a sample may be precise because a well-selected sample may reflect the characteristics of the population accurately. In a survey, it is impractical to interview all possible respondents in a controlled experiment, it is not possible to test the hypotheses on all potential subjects. Likewise, in this research project, it was not easy to find the respondents who are among the ‘hidden population’ and because of their nature and vulnerability.

4.4.2.2 Participants

The participants who are involved in this Study are those who can speak English and have adopted e-commerce. The definition of e-commerce adopted for this research was discussed earlier in Chapter 1. The exclusion criteria included the participants who can not speak English, have not shopped online before. The participants are required to answer the questionnaire which is divided into four sections and takes between 25 to 30 minutes. The information provided by the respondents will not be released to anyone which will allow the

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data to be identified with any individual. The participants are advised that the survey is entirely voluntary and are free to withdraw. Confidentiality and privacy of respondents are observed, as code relating to data protection. When the participants have completed section D of the questionnaire, they are given an option to write down their emails if they would like to receive the results of the research project.