This is a non-random sampling technique where the initial respondents to a survey recruit others for a survey.
Linear snowball sampling is when the first responent recruits one more person for the survey, who in turn recruits one more person for the survey. Number of people surveyed will increase in a linear manner.
The related links provide good discussion of this form of surveying. It is a non-representative sample, but it is an effective means of surveying people with common traits who might otherwise be difficult to find.
For example, I want a statistical profile of people that are "hackers" so every hacker I find, I would ask if I could interview his "fellow hackers."
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Snowball sampling can be used in a number of circumstances. Sometimes the researcher may be able to identify only a small number of individuals in the target group but these people are likely to known others in the target group, and people that they know will also know more such people-and so on. By including those few initial people in her sample, and asking them to recruit others, the researcher may be able to achieve a useable sample size. Then, sometimes, a researcher is actually more interested in the connections between people, or in other words, social networks. In this case, snowball sampling can be used to identify those connections. Please see the link.
Answer is Quota sampling. Its one of the method of non-probability sampling.
1) Simple random sampling 2) Systematic sampling 3) Stratified sampling 4) Cluster sampling 5) Probability proportional to size sampling 6) Matched random sampling 7) Quota sampling 8) Convenience sampling 9) Line-intercept sampling 10) Panel sampling
Like snowball sampling, network sampling utilizes a "word of mouth" approach of acquiring participants. Those who are originally recruited suggest further participants. This method allows researchers to access populations that are not easily identifiable, are small in number, private, poorly organized or socially marginalized. Examples of such populations would be sexual minorities, drug users, etc. The advantage of network sampling is that these hard-to-reach populations are penetrated and recruitment is fairly convenient and inexpensive for the researcher. Most research methods experts find that network sampling is just as effective as other, more random methods and rarely leads to validity or reliability errors.
What is the difference between quota sampling and cluster sampling