General guides of running multi-country studies on inca

Modified on Mon, 8 Jan, 2024 at 3:34 PM

Options for conducting a multi-country study with inca

Conducting a multi-country survey presents unique challenges which include language translations, diverse cultures, and country-specific variables. However, by following a few straightforward guidelines, you can manage your survey on inca with ease.

There are two options for conducting a multi-country survey with inca, depending on the objectives and the specifics of the study.

If your survey questions, answers, and logic are universally applicable across all participating countries, it is possible to create one master study for all the countries. This approach simplifies data consolidation and enables easier comparative analysis.
There might be scenarios where questions need to be modified due to language, cultural factors, or country-specific variables. In such cases, the most effective approach would be to create separate studies for each country.

More specifically, there are some important considerations before determining the approach for a multi-country study on inca.

	One Master Study	Creating Multiple Studies
Objectives	All, if not the majority, of the survey questions, answers, and logic are universally applicable across all participating countries The key objective is to analyse the results across all the countries, and/or to compare the results by country	Questions need to be modified quite substantially due to language, cultural factors, or country-specific variables for each country Each country is considered independent and the analysis will be conducted individually for each
Execution	Relatively harder as it involves consolidating the specifics of all the participating countries into one study inca panel does not work as it is currently only designed to work for a single country within one study	Relatively simpler since each country can be treated as an individual standard study Have the choice between using inca panel or your own audience sources
Analysis	Relatively simpler as all the data are already consolidated on one dashboard	Relatively harder especially when we want to merge some data across countries
Costs	Cheaper as we only charge for one study	More expensive as we charge for multiple studies

How to conduct a multi-country study in one master study

In cases where the same survey questions, response choices, and logic are applicable to all the participating countries, you may opt to create one master study with the following guidelines.

Question Building

Create your questions in English as per standard procedures.
Once the English survey is confirmed, add relevant languages as well as translations. On how to add languages and translations, please see more details here.
Include a question to indicate the participant’s country of residence. There are two ways of doing this.
1. If you are using an audience panel that can target the audience by country, then you can add a Virtual Question with URL meta data. More specifically, in that Virtual Question, you can set up options for each country using URL meta data. Later on, you can append the URL meta data in the survey link(s) you share with the panel to indicate the country for them to target.
2. If you won’t target the audience by country, then please include a Choice Question to ask the participant’s country of residence.
In case you want to add more questions for certain countries, then you may use the logic features with the Country question in #3.

Audience Sourcing

If you choose to conduct a multi-country study in one master study, then you will NOT be able to use the inca panel for audience sourcing. This is because the inca panel is currently only designed to work for a single country within one study.
If you want to set up quota groups by country, then you will need to use the Virtual Question to set up the additional quota variable with the Country question in #3.

Analysis and Reporting

If we choose to conduct a multi-country study in one master study, then you will have all the data and results on one dashboard. You will also be able to use the the Country question in #3 to create the filters and crosstabs on the dashboard to compare the results by country.

Please see more details about how to set up a multi-country study using URL metadata here.

How to conduct a multi-country study by creating multiple studies

If the questions need to be modified due to language, cultural factors, or country-specific variables, it may be more efficient to create separate studies for each country with the following guidelines.

Question Building

Create your questions for one country as per standard procedures.
Duplicate the study for different countries and make necessary changes to each country. Please see more details about how to duplicate a study here.
For each country, add the relevant languages as well as the translations. On how to add languages and translations, please see more details here.
In case there are questions you want to compare by country, please make sure that the set up is the same for those questions across countries.

Audience Sourcing

5. If you choose to create multiple studies, then each study works the same as other standard surveys. You can choose between using inca panel or selecting your own audience sources.

Analysis and Reporting

6. If you choose to create multiple studies, then data and results will be shown separately on the individual dashboard for each country. To compare the results of certain questions across countries, you may download the raw data of each country, and merge the relevant data, and then compare the results in SPSS/EXCEL or other tabulation tools.

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