Screen size effects in online data collections
ISSN: 0736-3761
Article publication date: 31 May 2019
Issue publication date: 9 September 2019
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine if the response device (smartphone vs computer) used by participants in online data collections affects their responses. The screens of smartphones and computers differ in size, and the main hypothesis here is that screen size is likely to be influential when stimuli with aesthetic qualities are shown on the screen.
Design/methodology/approach
Two experiments, in which pictures of food items were used as stimuli, were conducted. In each experiment, the screen size of the participants’ devices used for the responses was a measured factor.
Findings
Participants with large screen devices responded with a higher level of (a) positive emotions and (b) attractiveness perceptions than participants with small screen devices.
Practical implications
The results highlight that the participant’s device can be a confounding factor in research projects comprising online data collections. Screen size thereby represents an additional factor calling for caution in the “exodus to cyberspace” that characterizes many contemporary researchers’ data collection activities.
Originality/value
When data are collected online, participants’ can use devices that differ in terms of screen size (e.g. smartphones, tablets and computers), but the impact of this factor on consumer behavior-related response variables has hitherto not been examined in existing research.
Keywords
Citation
Söderlund, M., Colliander, J. and Szugalski, S. (2019), "Screen size effects in online data collections", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 36 No. 6, pp. 751-759. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-10-2018-2882
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited