Benefits from Using Continuous Rating Scales in Online Survey Research

The usage of Likert-type scales has become widespread practice in current IS research. Those scales require individuals to choose between a limited number of choices, and have been criticized in the literature for causing loss of information, allowing the researcher to affect responses by determining the range, and being ordinal in nature. The use of online surveys allows for the easy implementation of continuous rating scales, which have a long history in psychophysical measurement but were rarely used in IS surveys. This type of measurement requires survey participants to express their opinion in a visual form, i.e. to place a mark at an appropriate position on a continuous line. That not only solves the problems of information loss, but also allows for applying advanced robust statistical analyses. In this 1 Augasse 2-6, A-1090 Vienna, Austria Tel.: +43/1/31336/4480 Fax: +43/1/31336/746 E-Mail: [email protected]