Exploring the Feasibility of Recruiting Respondents and Collecting Web Data Via Smartphone: A Case Study of Text-To-Web Recruitment for a General Population Survey in Germany

Abstract

Abstract The widespread usage of smartphones, as well as their technical features, offers many opportunities for survey research. As a result, the importance and popularity of smartphone surveys is steadily increasing. To explore the feasibility of a new text-to-web approach for surveying people directly via their smartphones, we conducted a case study in Germany in which we recruited respondents from a mobile random digit dialing sample via text messages that included a link to a web survey. We show that, although this survey approach is feasible, it is hampered by a number of issues, namely a high loss of numbers at the invitation stage, and a high rate of implicit refusals on the landing page of the survey.