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Understanding the Decision to Participate in a Survey and the Choice of the Response Mode

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Title: Understanding the Decision to Participate in a Survey and the Choice of the Response Mode


1
Understanding the Decision to Participate in a
Survey and the Choice of the Response Mode
  • Anders Holmberg and Boris Lorenc

European Conference on Quality in Official
Statistics Rome, Italy July 11, 2008
2
Content
  • Introduction to the problem
  • Background
  • The design of the study
  • goals
  • setup
  • results
  • Summary and tentative conclusions

3
Mixed Mail-and-Web Surveys
  • Swedish individual and household surveys with
    Self-Administered Questionnaires (SAQ)
  • The problem low use of the web alternative
  • belief in rationality of the web mode (editing,
    other quality aspects, cost, environment)
  • cannot publicly afford the Web mode only
  • possibly, a mode switch (more of which later)
  • goal finding a solution with an increase in the
    proportion of web respondents and a cost
    reduction, without harming the response rate

4
Background
  • PAP (mail Q) as the standard mode for SAQ
  • cover letter, questionnaire, return envelope, in
    some cases separate instruction, incentives.
  • response rates as elsewhere fall gradually
  • Web as an alternative mode for SAQ
  • introduced in the 2000s for ind/hh surveys in
    Sweden
  • with the expectations of easier input editing,
    higher response rate, cost reduction, and greater
    acceptance
  • carried out by including a paper sheet in the
    above, with an URL and login data
  • Reminders

5
Background (contd)
  • Web as an alternative mode for SAQ (contd)
  • its use is optional, according to preference of
    external customer or internal statistical product
  • The expectations were not fulfilled
  • mostly due to the webs low use in mail-and-web
    mixed mode surveys around 10-15 of the responses
    are collected through the web
  • no previous study of cost done, but impression of
    survey managers is that the costs are higher in
    the mixed mode than in the single paper mode.
    (Development cost of single use SAQs)
  • Reasons?

6
The Parent Survey
  • Entry on the labour market after graduation.
  • Proportion of NR as well as web respondent were
    higher for men than women, (37 vs. 28) and (23
    vs. 11)
  • The proportion of NR is highest in the lowest and
    highest income class.
  • No observed differences in choice of mode with
    regards to age and immigrant background.

7
Design of the Study
  • A study was initiated to understand the reasons
    for the low proportion of web responses
  • conducted as a telephone follow-up
  • a simple random sample among the three groups in
    the parent survey web respondents (W), paper
    respondents (P) and nonrespondents (NR)
  • sample sizes of about 310 in each group the
    response rates 77, 83 and 61 respectively

8
Data collection results from interviews
9
Design of the Study, the Interview questionnaire
  • Specific questions to each group of respondents
  • Was the web alternative observed?
  • Why/why not use the web questionnaire?
  • Preferences regarding choice of response mode
  • A follow-up question to the NR-group on their
    status of occupation.

10
Results Web-mode visibility
  • The main results
  • 80 of paper respondents saw the web mode.
    Roughly 65 of paper respondents saw the web mode
    alt. in the first mail-out. Roughly 55 of the
    NR-group saw the web mode in the first mail-out.
  • 75 of the paper respondents who saw the web mode
    alt. chose Simplicity of PAP as the reason to
    hold onto the mail mode (as did 60 of those
    paper respondents who, on another question,
    ranked web as the mode of highest preference)
  • 25 of the paper respondents who saw the web alt.
    chose those alternatives that refer to
    unavailability of computer or Internet (permanent
    or temporal) as the reason

11
Results Choice of paper or web
  • In an optional open-ended question, 20 of the
    paper respondents who saw the web mode alt., gave
    circumstantial reasons for using the PAP mode,
    namely immediate availability of PAP
  • security and privacy do not seem to be a concern
  • Web respondents
  • Over 90 of the web responders had the
    simplicity of the web as their main reason for
    choosing the web mode.

12
Results The Nonrespondents
  • gt 60 of nonrespondents declared specific
    circumstances as their main reason for not
    responding, i.e. lack of time, forgetfulness, etc
  • Approx. 8 decided not to take part in the parent
    survey as they had (fallaciously) interpreted
    themselves as being outside the target
    population.

13
Results Question on mode of preference
14
Respondent Suggestions to increase web use
  • Send survey invitations through e-mail
  • Discard the paper questionnaire
  • Make the web-option obvious and the only
    alternative
  • Provide incentives for web responses
  • Have functioning technical solutions

15
Summary
  • Observations
  • The web option is not visible enough
  • The mail mode is considered simple (easily move
    around, change entries, break and continue)
  • Circumstantial reasons the what is at hand
    principle
  • Conclusions/changes
  • Strategy change needed when SAQ is mailed
  • Marketing of the web alternative
  • Other technical solution when receiving web
    questionnaires
  • Construction environment.

16
Thank You!
  • Anders Holmberg and Boris Lorenc

firstname.surname_at_scb.se
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