Web Survey Bibliography
Title Do Response Rates and Responses Differ between Mail and Internet Answers in a Mixed Mode Survey?
Author Etter, R.
Source 26th CIRET Conference in Taipei, Taiwan
Year 2002
Access date 29.01.2006
Full text pdf (240k)
Abstract For many years, Business Tendency Surveys on the basis of mailing suffer from an erosion of the response rate. To counter this problem, there are traditional methods as
limitation of the number of questions, improvement of the design of the questionnaire, intensified recalls by mail or telephone, more attractive outputs and a time-reduction of
the delivery of the results. Another way to stop the reduction of the response rate is to offer different modes of surveys. Therefore, the KOF introduced an online survey in
addition to the mail survey. Up to now, there are only few research projects which analysed the effects of the new technique of the online survey on the response rate and the quality of the responses.
First studies indicate that mail surveys produce higher response rates than internet surveys. Our results show a big difference in the unit non-response rate too.
Differentiating according to language regions, branches, size of firms and by the percentage of exports on sales does not change the picture. If there is a different behaviour of firms between the two modes this could be reflected not
only on the response rate but also on the selection of the response category. This would have a significant draw-back for the survey results and their interpretation. The results
show at least in the case of "Total manufacturing industry" that the differences between the two modes can be neglected. The results of business tendency surveys are rarely used on a micro level. The internationally common aggregation technique is the balance method. We therefore analysed the effect of the differences of the two survey modes on the balance indicators. The examination had to be restricted to the monthly survey in manufacturing industry. Thirteen out of fifteen questions have equal means in the two survey modes.
limitation of the number of questions, improvement of the design of the questionnaire, intensified recalls by mail or telephone, more attractive outputs and a time-reduction of
the delivery of the results. Another way to stop the reduction of the response rate is to offer different modes of surveys. Therefore, the KOF introduced an online survey in
addition to the mail survey. Up to now, there are only few research projects which analysed the effects of the new technique of the online survey on the response rate and the quality of the responses.
First studies indicate that mail surveys produce higher response rates than internet surveys. Our results show a big difference in the unit non-response rate too.
Differentiating according to language regions, branches, size of firms and by the percentage of exports on sales does not change the picture. If there is a different behaviour of firms between the two modes this could be reflected not
only on the response rate but also on the selection of the response category. This would have a significant draw-back for the survey results and their interpretation. The results
show at least in the case of "Total manufacturing industry" that the differences between the two modes can be neglected. The results of business tendency surveys are rarely used on a micro level. The internationally common aggregation technique is the balance method. We therefore analysed the effect of the differences of the two survey modes on the balance indicators. The examination had to be restricted to the monthly survey in manufacturing industry. Thirteen out of fifteen questions have equal means in the two survey modes.
Access/Direct link KOF
Year of publication2002
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
Web Survey Bibliography - 2002 (418)
- Trends in marketing research and their impact on survey research sampling; 2002; Anich, B.
- Standards questionnaire format; 2002
- Psychological reactions to terrorist attacks. Findings from the national study of American's reactions...; 2002; Thalji, L. et al.
- Predicting the future of consumer panels; 2002; Wansink, B., Sudman, S.
- Online longitudinal survey research. Validity and participation; 2002; Hiskey, S., Troop, N. A.
- New approaches to assessing opinion: The prospects for electronic mail surveys; 2002; Best, S. J., Krueger, B. S.
- More than a thousand words? Visual cues and visual knowledge; 2002; Prior, M.
- E-Research: Ethics, security, design, and control in psychological research on the Internet; 2002; Banaji, M., Greenwald, A., Nosek, B.
- Demand characteristics in the laboratory and the clinic: Conversations and collaborations with subjects...; 2002; Kihlstrom, J. F.
- Bracketing effects in categorized survey questions and the measurement of economic quantities; 2002; Winter, J.
- A D-minus for computer exams; 2002; Mayfield, K.
- The influence of Alternative Visual Designs on Respondents' Performance with Branching Instructions...; 2002; Redline, C. D., Dillman, D. A.
- The use of incentives to reduce nonresponse household surveys; 2002; Singer, E.
- Ethnical guidelines for internet research; 2002
- Statistical Analysis with Missing Data (2nd Ed.); 2002; Little, R. J., Rubin, D. B.
- Do argumentation tasks promote conceptual change about volcanoes?; 2002; Hemmerich, J., Wiley, J.
- WEXTOR: A Web-based tool for generating and visualizing experimental designs and procedures; 2002; Reips, U. -D., Neuhaus, C.
- Web-based experiments controlled by JavaScript: An Example from probability learning; 2002; Birnbaum, M. H., Wakcher, S. V.
- Studying hate crime with the Internet: What makes racist advocate racial violence?; 2002; Glaser, J., Dixit, J., Green, D. P.
- Designing a Strategy for Reducing “No Opinion” Responses in Web-Based Surveys; 2002; de Rouvray, C., Couper, M. P.
- Interactive aspects of web surveys: Modeling and clarifying users ' understanding of questions; 2002; Conrad, F. G.
- Cognitive processes when answering online questionnaires; 2002; Fuchs, M.
- Using client side paradata to evaluate respondent behavior in Web surveys; 2002; Heerwegh, D.
- Doec propensity score weighting work for Web Surveys; 2002; Forsman, G., Varedian, M.
- Visual design issues in Web surveys; 2002; Couper, M. P.
- Results from cognitive interviews of nsf earned doctorate Web survey; 2002; Altheimer, I., Dillman, D. A.
- Conducting Survey Research Through an Enhanced Online Web Survey Procedure ; 2002; Theuri, P. M., Turner, L. D.
- Community views on crime and policing: Survey mode effects on bias in community surveys; 2002; Hennigan, K. M., Maxson, C. L., Sloane, D., Ranney, M.
- Private e-mail requests and the diffusion of responsibility; 2002; Barron, G., Yechiam, E.
- Ethical decision-making and Internet research: Recommendations from the aoir ethics working committee...; 2002; Ess, C., AoIR
- Getting results from online surveys – Reflections on a personal journey; 2002; McCalla, R. A.
- The Use of Web-Based International Surveys In Information Systems Research; 2002; Lang, M.
- The Internet as a Research Tool: Worth the Price of Admission?; 2002; Lenert, L. A., Skoczen, S.
- OnQ: An Authoring Tool for Dynamic Online Surveys; 2002; Pargas, R. P., , Brand, L., Hochrine, C., Staton, M.
- July 2002 Status of Forces Survey of Active-Duty Members: Tabulations of Responses; 2002
- Conducting online research and evaluation; 2002; Zimitat, C., Crebert, G.
- Problemas conductuales relacionados con el uso de Internet: Un estudio exploratorio.; 2002; De Gracia Blanco1, M., Anglada, M. V., Fernández Pérez, M. J., Marcó Arbončs, M.
- World Wide Web-gestützte Befragungen in der empirischen Sozialforschung: Ein Erfahrungsbericht; 2002; Pannewitz, J.
- Online Student Evaluation of Instruction: An Investigation of Non-Response Bias; 2002; Thorpe, S. W.
- Do Response Rates and Responses Differ between Mail and Internet Answers in a Mixed Mode Survey?; 2002; Etter, R.
- Internet-Based Survey Research: Small- and Large-Scale Research for Business Decisions; 2002; Hollenbeck, A. R.
- Mixed Mode Surveying: A Comparison of Paper-questionnaries and Web-questionnariess; 2002; Bäckström, C., Nilsson, C.
- Web-based data collection: Ethical and practical considerations; 2002; Sedivy, S. K., Brondino, M. J.
- Collecting Information via the Web; 2002; Porter, S. R., Roy, M.
- The American Internet User Survey; 2002; Campbell, D., Finer, S.
- Trends in the Internet Population and Internet Research; 2002; MacEvoy, B.
- I/PRO's Vision on the Present and Future of Web Measurement; 2002; Poler, A.
- The Impact Of Demographics On Choice Of Survey Modes: Demographics Distinctiveness Between Web-Based...; 2002; Datta, P., Walsh, K., Terrell, D.
- Online Surveys - An Useful Internet; 2002; Anonymous
- The propensity score and estimation in nonrandom surveys - an overview; 2002; Danielsson, S.