Peer Esteem Snowballing: A methodology for expert surveys

A consistent problem with key informant, elite and expert interviewing is the representativeness of sample populations. Since studies that employ such techniques depend on a small number of respondents, they are often classed as qualitative. The possibility of going beyond these classic approaches arises by employing methods developed to explore hidden populations in network analysis. These would qualify as descriptive quantitative techniques since we cannot provide a robust measure of reliability. It is the case however, particularly in the investigation of small populations of expert opinion, that we can be confident of surveying a sizable proportion of that population. A case study of such a survey employing Peer Esteem Snowballing (PEST) is offered in demonstration.