Title: ANALYSIS

Analysis

Having introduced the overall results of the survey in the previous chapter, this chapter presents an analysis of the survey data. As mentioned in section 5.1 above, survey respondents were asked to rate their agreement with a list of statements on a seven-point Likert scale. The advantage of using this scale is that valid responses can be represented by numbers ranging from 1 to 7. In our case, 1 represents strong agreement with the statement and 7 strong disagreement. In the analysis, we treated the Likert scale as an interval-scale for which mean and standard deviation can be interpreted. The midpoint of the scale is at 4 (as the scale starts at 1). In the presentation that follows, we maintain the original structure of answers, where numbers less than 4 show degrees of agreement with the statement and numbers greater than 4 show disagreement. Four is the middle point of the scale, which we interpret here as neither agree nor disagree.

Using the conceptual framework discussed in chapter 3 above, the analysis is organized in 17 sections representing the research constructs. The 32 statements comprising the survey are discussed in relation to their respective constructs hence some of the sections are composed of only one statement, while some others have two or more.

While respondents to the survey came from 23 out of the 25 EU countries, low response rates from some of the countries prevented a valid comparison across countries.

1. UK & Ireland 

2. Austria, Germany & Scandinavia 

3. Benelux & France 

4. Central and Eastern Europe 

5. Southern Europe 

Besides systematically comparing response means across these five regions, aspects of demographic variation were analyzed for most of the questions. Those variables were not used for groups that were highly under-represented. The following demographic variables were used for this analysis:

1. age,  

2. gender,  

3. settlement size 

4. education.  

The questionnaire also contained a question about the extent to which users provide personal data online in the past month. Similar comparisons by region were carried out for this variable.

The following sections present regional analysis pertaining to each of the research constructs. In cases of reversed questions, we reverse the scale’s polarity for the analysis. The values higher than four will now mean a positive attitude towards the e ID, similar to other, non-reversed items. This way, the charts will be easier to compare. Clearly,  we indicate cases in which the scale has been reversed.