I agree with you that the survey is very useful in real world life.

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Qualitative mehtod and Surveys are very popular method in IS.  When we start new topic and them, we can consier a qualitative research using interviews. I think probabley it can be used for an exploratory study easily.

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The chapter on surveys was probably the most relevant for me. At one point the author mentions how surveys can create a false sense of security because of their perceived quantitativeness. I've seen this quite a bit in organizations where people quantify survey data then drive business decisions based on those numbers. I liked that the author went into some detail about how to structure surveys well, the various ways of adminstering them and the pros and cons, and also the pitfalls of surveys altogether. I especially thought surveys were relevant because of the often qualitative nature of some IS projects. For example, what would be the impact of redesigning a very complex site using design principles? While we could measure things like time to completion of a task, often these changes can be so minor we can't really show what the benefit was. However, the qualitative perceptions of those impacted aer another story. Certainly I walked away with a greater appreciation for surveys as well as awareness not to rely on that false seen of quantitative value too much.

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Congshan, it is very interesting to coundct IS research using a combination method of qualitative and quantitative methods. However, research must figure out what they seek and circumstances. I think resarch questions can help will decide the method to conduct it.

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I experienced the same thing as you guys did about the interview. When the interview was too long, I always lost my concentration and might be not answer carefully. Therefore, the data that they got for me was not accurate.

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I agree with you that nowadays people conduct surveys on the internet and publish result to public. It is also true that researches might not be designed based on validity. The internet based survey is just another kind of data collection method for doing research. The researchers still need to be careful on identify validity.

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As Robson menitons in Box 9.2 (Questions to avoid in interviews), an interviewer should avoid all these.  When I worked as IT Manager, I got a lot of phone calls from outside to request to interviews.  Their questions are long and taken time to answer which it took me about 20 min.

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After introducing the main research strategies, such as fixed design research and flexible design, in part III Robson continue to talking about the methods of data collection--tactics of research. Robson not only emphasizes on “Surveys and Questionnaires”, “Interviews”, “Tests and Scales”, and Observational Methods”; but also gives us general views about additional methods of data collection, such as “Unobtrusive Measures.”

Survey research method has been used for a long time in various fields. In “real world” life, we are surrounded by surveys in various kinds of manner, such as direct-mail surveys and Internet-based surveys. Based on my prior knowledge, I think the survey is a very simple method and everybody can carry out it. But I changed my opinion about the survey after reading the chapter 8, especially “Steps in carrying out a small-scale interview-based questionnaire survey” in the Box 8.1. That box shows that a period of minimum three to four months for the whole process is required only for a small-scale survey. In the latter contents of chapter 8, Robson continues to talking about the advantages and disadvantages of the survey, which shows us how to do a right survey and how to avoid the threats. Also I like the “Carrying out a sample survey” very much since it is very practical. In that part, Robson teaches us how to carry out a survey step by step from “initial design and planning” to the final design with his valuable examples and magic “boxes”.

Interview is another familiar method in real world research, but I was still getting new thoughts during the period of reading chapter 9. As usual, Robson describes the advantages and disadvantages of interviews. But I want to talk about Robson’s advice for interviewers: “listen more than you speak”. I have similar experience in contrary to interviewer: interviewee. Some of the interviewers were talking too much of introducing the company and other irrelevant topic, and the result is I knew something but they did not get sufficient information from me.

I like Robson’s idea of using multiple methods at the end of part III. The author describes the advantages of the using of multiple methods and additionally provides “approaches to combining qualitative and quantitative methods” in Box 12.8 which is very helpful for us to conduct the research.

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