Daniele Toninelli

• Professor (Assistant) at University of Bergamo

In the era of social media, the huge availability of big data such as digital data (e.g. posts sent through social networks or unstructured data scraped from websites) allows to develop new types of research in a wide range of fields. These types of big data are available for low costs and in almost real-time. Nevertheless, their collection and ana...

In the era of Big Data, the Internet has become one of the main data sources: Data can be collected for relatively low costs and can be used for a wide range of purposes. To be able to timely support solid decisions in any field, it is essential to increase data production efficiency, data accuracy, and reliability. In this framework, our paper aim...

In current times Internet and social media have become almost unavoidabletools to support research and decision making processes in various fields.Nevertheless, the collection and use of data retrieved from these types ofsources pose different challenges. In a previous paper we compared theefficiency of three alternative methods used to retrieve ge...

More and more respondents answer web surveys using mobile devices. Different authors argue that the smaller screen size (particularly for smartphones) could lead to lower data quality. However, only a few studies have taken into consideration the screen size as a factor that can affect data quality. In this frame, this chapter aims at evaluating th...

Purpose – Despite the quick spread of the use of mobile devices in survey participation, there is still little knowledge about the potentialities and challenges that arise from this increase. The purpose of this paper is to study how respondents’ preferences drive their choice of a certain device when participating in surveys. Furthermore, this pap...

More and more respondents use mobile devices to complete web surveys. These devices have different characteristics, if compared to PCs (e.g. smaller screen sizes and higher portability). These characteristics can affect the survey responses, mostly when a questionnaire includes sensitive questions. This topic was already studied by Mavletova and Co...

Some respondents already complete web surveys via mobile devices. These devices vary at several levels from PCs. In particular, we expect differences when grid questions are used due to the lower visibility on mobile devices and because in questionnaires optimized to be completed through smartphones, grids are split up into an item-by-item format....

This chapter introduces the WebDataNet group as the development framework of this book. It also presents the most relevant themes regarding the Mobile Research Methods in different research areas and the opportunities, issues and state of the art of mobile research. Finally, it summarizes the book structure and content.

Daily activity sees data constantly flowing through cameras, the internet, satellites, radio frequencies, sensors, private appliances, cars, smartphones, tablets and the like. Among all the tools currently used, mobile devices, especially mobile phones, smartphones and tablets, are the most widespread, with their use becoming prevalent in everyday...

In light of the growing importance of web-based data in the social and behavioral sciences, WEBDATANET was established in 2011 as a COST Action (IS 1004) to create a multidisciplinary network of web-based data collection experts: (web) survey methodologists, psychologists, sociologists, linguists, economists, Internet scientists, media and public o...

Recently two levels of graduate degree have been introduced in the Italian University system. This study identifies the key factors underlying postgraduate employability. A comparison of the two degree levels, together with the main profiles of the two groups of graduates, is provided. Segmentation analysis (the CHAID algorithm) is applied to the 2...

What is in it for you? Do you collect data via the Internet in your research? If you do, this European network is important for you. The network collects and combines experiences and research on the methodology of online data collection. It provides access to expertise that may be important in your re-search. [...] WEBDATANET is a unique multidisci...

This paper proposes an ex-post comparison of portfolio selection strategies. These are applied to certain preselected assets among about ten thousand stocks on the global market. In particular, we preselected a few assets for each portfolio selection problem, taking into account different return characteristics. The preselecting criteria take into...

Web-based and Internet surveys offer a much interesting potential. It is a wide spread belief that this data collecting tool makes it easy and cost effective to contact respondents. These guidelines do not cover Web-based survey costs analysis. However, even if the costs of producing questionnaires, lists, etc. are an important component, marginal...