Snowball Sampling: Definition

Snowball sampling or chain-referral sampling is defined as a non-probability

sampling technique in which the samples have traits that are rare to find. This is a
sampling technique, in which existing subjects provide referrals to
recruit samples required for a research study.

For example, if you are studying the level of customer satisfaction among the members
of an elite country club, you will find it extremely difficult to collect primary data sources
unless a member of the club agrees to have a direct conversation with you and provides
the contact details of the other members of the club.

Types of Snowball Sampling

1. Linear Snowball Sampling: The formation of a sample group starts with one
individual subject providing information about just one other subject and then the
chain continues with only one referral from one subject. This pattern is continued
until enough number of subjects are available for the sample.

2. Exponential Non-Discriminative Snowball Sampling: In this type, the first

subject is recruited and then he/she provides multiple referrals. Each new referral
then provides with more data for referral and so on, until there is enough number
of subjects for the sample.

3. Exponential Discriminative Snowball Sampling: In this technique, each

subject gives multiple referrals, however, only one subject is recruited from each
referral. The choice of a new subject depends on the nature of the research
study.

Snowball Sampling Applications

Snowball sampling is usually used in cases where there is no precalculated list of target
population details (homeless people), there is immense pain involved in contacting m-
embers of the target population (victims of rare diseases) , members of the target
population are not inclined towards contributing due to a social stigma attached to them
(hate-crime, rape or sexual abuse victims, sexuality, etc.) or the confidentiality of the
organization respondents work for (CIA, FBI or terrorist organization).

Snowball Sampling Examples

For some population, snowball sampling is the only way of collecting data and
meaningful information. Following are the instances, where snowball sampling can be
used:
 1. No official list of names of the members: This sampling technique can be
used for a population, where there is no easily available data like
their demographic information. For example, homeless or list of members of an
elite club, whose personal details cannot be obtained easily.

2. Difficulty to locate people: People with rare diseases are quite difficult to
locate. However, if a researcher is carrying out a research study similar in nature,
finding the primary data source can be a challenge. Once he/she is identified,
they usually have information about more such similar individuals.

3. People who are not willing to be identified: If a researcher is carrying out a

study which involves collecting information/data from sex workers or victims of
sexual assault or individuals who don’t want to disclose their sexual orientations,
these individuals will fall under this category.

4. Secretiveness about their identity: People who belong to a cult or are religious
extremists or hackers usually fall under this category. A researcher will have to
use snowball sampling to identify these individuals and extract information from
them.

What do you consider are the ethical issues raised by this research?

Answer: The databases on the Internet contains data that is too personal such as contact
details, email addresses, telephone numbers, fax number and page number, which are
only meant for employers to look at. The researchers used this information to contact the
crew for interviews and research purposes might not be morally right. The people who
uploaded their information want to let the employers know them better and contact them
if they have job offers. They would not expect to get contacted for research purposes,
thus they can be very annoyed and disappointed with the website they registered with.
This will not only bother the crew but also make the website look bad and not trustworthy
to the customers.

What sampling techniques are being used in this case ?

Answer: The researchers have carried out multi-stage sampling technique.

First of all they do cluster sampling to get 3800 crew in 80 film-related
occupations. They only want those who work in the film industry in Los
Angeles, rather than the whole of United States. Then they do simple random
sampling to send 180 emails for interviews. After that, they choose the
snowball sampling technique to get more participants in their study by asking
people to recommend other crew whom they work with. Sampling techniques
used in this research according to me is simple random stratified sampling.
Outline the advantages and disadvantages of snowball sampling ?

Answer: Advantages of Snowballing are as follows;

1. You can locate hidden populations: this is possible for researchers to include
people in the survey which they would have known from before or found from
databases

2. Locating people of a specific population: No sources or lists for locating

members of the population of a specific interest therefore using the snowballing
technique would help identify who these people are.

Disadvantages of snowballing are as follows;

1. The technique can be inexact and can produce varied and inaccurate results as
the method is heavily reliant on the skill of the individual conducting the actual
sampling.

2. There is no way to know the total size of the overall population

3. Lack of definite knowledge as to whether or not the sample is an accurate

reading of the target population

4. Lastly targeting the correct people is time consuming and outweighs many
costs

How valid are the results of the research likely to be ?

Answer: When talking about the validity of internet research, the results to be given after
research has been undertaken around the topic area is very unlikely to be accurate – unless you
have a good source which is valid, accurate, and most popular which is used often by major
companies and researchers.

Q1. What are the major

benefits and drawbacks of
using the internet as part of
an international
research study?
Answer: The major benefits
of using internet as of an
international research study
are as follows;
1. Most data could be found
online related around the
subject area as part of the
international
research study
2. Easy accessible to
information which could be
retrieved from any parts of
the world
3. Quick and easy way to
research any information
required
4. Up to date information is
always at hand
5. Seminal work is wide
spread
6. Cost effective and a lot
cheaper to get information
and research online
Q1. What are the major benefits and drawbacks of using the internet as part of an
international research study?

Answer: The major benefits of using internet as of an international research study are as
follows;
1. Most data could be found online related around the subject area as part of the international
research study
2. Easy accessible to information which could be retrieved from any parts of the world
3. Quick and easy way to research any information required
4. Up to date information is always at hand
5. Seminal work is wide spread
6. Cost effective and a lot cheaper to get information and research online.

The major drawbacks of using the internet as part of an international research study are as
follows;
1. Data research maybe incorrect and inaccurate
2. Sources used for researching information may be invalid
3. Online research has some inherent problems which makes the researchers information
finding difficult and not easy to access
4. The data researched might be out of date
5. The research may not be backed by academics and the data may be biased.

Chapter 5 case study

The relationship between risk and return in loan
decisions at credit unions

1- What methods of data collection did Josef employ?

Q1: Josef collected information through observation, documents including a manual on loan
decisions, interviewing the CU workers and volunteers.

2- How was Josef’s approach to a case study different from a conventional or orthodox
approach?

Q2: Under the traditional approach, a case study is doing and opinion is formed through
desktop research of information while Josef has changed his approach and collected the
information through observation, reading the manual, interviewing workers, using the research
of different authors, roommate opinion which gave him wider thinking and ground for opinions.

3- Will Josef be able to ‘generalise’ his findings to other credit unions? Does it matter whether
he can or cannot do so?

Q3: He cannot generalize his findings to all CU as Josef there are 3 types of CU while Josef
researches him based on small version 1 CU. Further, it doesn't matter whether he generalize
so or not as he has done ne case study based on only one CU which doesn't reflect the
appropriate sample size.

4- Did Josef apply for ethical approval for his study at the correct point and what should he
have done when changing his research question?
Q4: Yes Josef applied for ethical approval for his study at the correct point as he did so only
after a basic understanding of the CU. However, while his research Briony referred him to read
Polyani work after which he understand that people possess two types of knowledge, one that
may be formalized into codes.