Telephone Surveys in Europe: Research and Practice

The first part of this book deals with the coverage of landline and mobile phones in Europe. It presents an overview of the coverage and the use of phones as well as the resulting strategies for telephone surveys. The second part addresses the challenge of so-called “mobile‐only” households for survey research. Numerous statisticians present new sampling strategies like dual frame designs and findings of current projects. In dual frame designs, respondents are contacted both via mobile phone and landline. The third part focuses on the usage of mobile phones in the general population, while the fourth part of examines if different modes of data collection (mobile vs. landline) have an impact on the response quality. The last part analyses the first chapter and offers suggestions and advice on how to conduct surveys and polls, in both academic and market research.

Telephone surveying is the most often applied mode of data collection in Europe. That implies a need for methodological knowledge on this topic. However, technical conditions are changing rapidly and the challenge for survey researchers to stay up-to-date is immense. For instance, landline and mobile phone coverage have extremely changed in the last time. Along with the rising number of so-called "mobile-onlys", this particular field of telephone survey research becomes more and more important. Thus, we concentrate on the latest developments and trends in landline and mobile phone surveys in Europe.

The book is addressed to all scientists and practitioners who deal with theory and application of telephone surveys - in academic and market research. Furthermore, it is a valuable reader for students who are interested in survey methodology.