How Global Research Centers are Moving Toward Mixed-Mode Surveys

The purpose of this essay is to provide an overview of the survey industry’s recent shift toward mixed data collection designs, identify the reasons for this shift, highlight the main types of such designs, and outline the opportunities and limitations of their use. This primarily concerns the combination of different data collection modes within a single survey method, each of which, individually, fails to provide representative samples within tight time and budget constraints. Characteristics of two types of mixed designs are examined — sequential and parallel — in which modes are combined to collect a single random sample. Both types are usable in surveys that require high-quality data — with clear descriptions of the outlines of the represented population, the parameters of sample representation, as well as the characteristics of the accuracy and reliability of the results. Also described is a special type of internally heterogeneous compromise design, applicable in a situation when, given a lack of an adequate information base, the implementation of a single random sample by combining survey modes is fundamentally impossible. A compromise design does not so much combine survey modes as it blends biased samples in the hope that the strengths of each sample will compensate for the weaknesses of the others. Compromise designs are widely used in exploratory studies where it is enough to obtain rough estimates of the prevalence of phenomena or features. The conclusion assesses the applicability of mixed-method designs in Russian institutional settings. The transition to mixed-method designs is viewed as a shift toward a reflexive (and less routine) type of social survey.

biased samples · mixed-mode surveys · sample representativeness · survey data quality · Survey methodology · Business Strategies and Management Research · Survey Methodology and Nonresponse · Survey Sampling and Estimation Techniques

• Mixed-Mode Official Surveys

  Barry Schouten, Jan Van Den Brakel et al.•Mixed-Mode Surveys•2021

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• Comparing self-administered mixed-mode and face-to-face designs in a repeated cross-sectional survey

  Open Access•Alexandra Asimov•International Journal of Social…•2025

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