Web Survey Bibliography
In online panels it is common practice to offer incentives for study participation. The current study aimed at answering the following questions: First, how effective are different incentives in enhancing participation in web-based studies? Second, how do these incentives affect data quality? And third, how do these effects change over time?
3227 newly recruited members of an online access panel were invited to seven subsequent survey waves. One half of the participants were offered a result summary for each wave completed, the other half did not receive this offer. In addition, one out of five incentives was promised for participation in each wave. Participants were offered either no incentive, money via bank transfer, money via PayPal, loyalty points, or a donation to charity (either a predetermined charity or a selectable charity). Panelists' willingness to participate was assessed by three measures per wave: Panel attrition, response rate, and retention rate. Data quality was measured in each wave by the number of missing values, the number of words written in answers to open-ended questions, and the tendency to use mid-point categories in close-ended questions. Latent growth curve models and path models were used to analyze the longitudinal effect of the independent variables.
Independent of the manipulations, response rate decreased linearly over the seven waves. Result summary without concurrent incentives accelerated this decline. Adding an incentive to the result summary offset this negative effect, but incentives without concurrent result summary did not heighten the response rate. Donation incentives and PayPal lowered the initial response rate. The number of written words increased by a gentle quadratic slope independent of the manipulations. Either type of incentive increased this quadratic slope. Otherwise, attrition, retention, missing values, and mid-point category use were influenced by incentives merely in a sporadic manner.
The findings suggest that the use of incentives needs to be considered carefully. Panelists might perceive result summaries, Paypal and donations as a burden rather than as gratification. Straightforward payments such as bank transfer and loyalty points appear to perform better, but they need time to bring forth positive effects on panelists' willingness to participate.
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Web survey bibliography - Germany (361)
- Are well-selected panelists better respondents? Insights into the effect of a master screener on panel...; 2010; Irmer, C., Tress, F.
- Selection Bias in Web Surveys and the Use of Propensity Scores in Forecasting the Result of the 2009...; 2010; Musch, J., Ullrich, S., Diedenhofen, D.
- Self-administered mobile surveys: Usability and (non)participation; 2010; Scherrer, S., Bosnjak, M.
- Social desirability and self-reported health risk behaviors in web-based research: three longitudinal...; 2010; Crutzen, R., Goeritz, A.
- Security and Data Protection: Collection, Storage, Feedback in Internet Research; 2010; Thiele, O., Kaczmirek, L.
- Methoden der Online-Forschung; 2010; Welker, M., Wünsch, C.
- Online-Befragungen im Kontext von Lehrevaluationen – praktisch und unzuverlässig; 2010; Meinefeld, W.
- The Effects of Different Incentives on Data Quantity and Data Quality in Online Panels; 2010; Singh, R. K., Voggeser, B. J., Goeritz, A.
- Breakoff in Web Surveys of the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES); 2010; Blumenstiel, J. E., Roßmann, J., Steinbrecher, M.
- The longitudinal effect of incentives on participation and data quality in online panels; 2010; Neumann, B. P., Goeritz, A.
- The denominator problem: Estimating MSM-specific incidence of sexually transmitted infections and prevalence...; 2009; Marcus, U., Schmidt, A. J., Kollan, C., Hamouda, O.
- Mobile surveys from a technological perspective; 2009; Pferdekämper, T., Batanic, B.
- The Effect of Phrasing Scale Items in Low-Brow or High-Brow Language on Responses; 2009; Blasius, J., Friedrichs, J.
- Continuous Measurement of Musically-Induced Emotion: A Web Experiment ; 2009; Egermann, H., Nagel, F., Altenmueller, E., Kopiez, R.
- Methodeneffekte von Web-Befragungen: Soziale Erwünschtheit vs. Soziale Entkontextualisierung; 2009; Taddicken, M.
- A Comparison of Different Survey Periods in Online Surveys of Persons with Eating Disorders and Their...; 2009; Wesemann, D., Grunwald, A., Grunwald, M.
- Are telephone Surveys a dying bread. How declining response rates can be explained and resolved; 2009; Degen, M., Obermüller, A., Schielicke, A.-M.
- Are people sharing their mobile phones? Selection probabilities in cellular telephone surveys; 2009; Fuchs, M., Busse, B.
- Accuracy of Estimates in Access Panel based Surveys; 2009; Enderle, T., Münnich, R., Bruch, C.
- Survey cooperation: response to initial and follow-up requests - Recent experiences from the recruitment...; 2009; Bartsch, S., Engel, U., Schnabel, C., Vehre, H.
- Using Mobile Phones to Administer a Working Memory Updating Task in a Survey - Cognitive Performance...; 2009; Schmiedek, F., Riediger, M., Lindenberger, U., Wagner, G. G.
- Accessibility of individuals for mobile phone surveys; 2009; Gabler, S., Häder, S.
- Mobile Phone Surveys in Germany – Response rates and response behaviour; 2009; Hader, S., Schneiderat, G.
- Interviewer voice characteristics and productivity in telephone surveys; 2009; Best, H., Bauer, G., Steinkopf, L.
- The impact of forgiving wording and question context on social desirability bias in sensitive surveys...; 2009; Naher, A.- F., Krumpal, I.
- Interactive feedback can improve accuracy of responses in web surveys; 2009; Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P., Tourangeau, R., Galesic, M.
- The influence of the field time on data quality in list-based Web surveys; 2009; Goeritz, A., Stieger, S.
- Are Respondents Sharing their Mobile Phones? Preliminary results based on a mobile phone panel in Germany...; 2009; Fuchs, M.
- Dynamic feedback in open-ended questions: Experiments on the visual design language of Web surveys; 2009; Fuchs, M.
- Effects of monetary incentives on participation in a two-wave online survey; 2009; Bandilla, W., Haas, I.
- Representativeness of Mobile Internet Surveys - A comparative study of CAMI vs. CATI ; 2009; Maier, U., Neubarth, W., Grosser, A., Hombach, A.
- Using flash type questions – stroke of luck or curse for data quality?; 2009; Laufer, S., Klapproth, U., Noll, S.
- Generic or Project-Specific Mail? – The Influence of Invitations on Response Behaviour in the...; 2009; Schroll, S.
- An Online Study on Coping with Anxiety and Disease-Specific Internet Use in Panic Attack Sufferers; 2009; König, D., Hiebler, C., Kryspin-Exner, I.
- Volumetric Forecast based on Online Access Panels; 2009; Rodenhausen, T., Drewes, F.
- How representative are sentiments expressed in social media for the marketing target audience? A comparison...; 2009; Jarchow, C., Thomas, J.
- SNB - Social Network Barometer; 2009; Drosdow, M., Geißler, H.
- Payments via Paypal as an Incentive in Online Panels; 2009; Goeritz, A., Wolff, H.-G., Goldstein, D. G.
- Advertising Effects of Online Video Ads; 2009; Wolf, M., Schönfeldt, J.
- Online election forecasts; 2009; Faas, T., Geißler, H.
- Why Do I Use the Social Web?” Exploring the Motives of Active and Passive Users via Focus Groups...; 2009; Jers, C., Taddicken, M., Schenk, M.
- Verbal Vs Visual Response Options: Reconciling Meanings Conveyed by a Computer Aided Visual Rating Scale...; 2009; Garland, P., Cape, P.
- AGOF internet facts – increasing the response rate for onsite-surveys; 2009; Foerstel, H.
- It’s all about customer satisfaction - Advantages and limitations of online surveys in applied...; 2009; Einhorn, M., Klein-Reesink, T., Löffler, M.
- Potential Of The Mobile Internet - What You Ask Is What You Get; 2009; Neubarth, W., Maier, U., Geißlitz, A.
- Using Tag Clouds to Analyse and Visualise Results of Open Ended Questions; 2009; Melles, T., Jaron, R.
- Measuring Perceived Virtual Social Support in Online Self-Help Groups; 2009; Preiß, H.
- Personalization as Strategy to Increase Response Rates; 2009; Althoff, S.
- Integrating Mobile Surveys into digital market research: Recommendations for Mobile Panel operation...; 2009; Friedrich-Freksa, M., de Groote, Z., Metzger, G.
- Social Web and Self-Disclosure = Participation vs. Privacy? Exploring How Users Manage this Dilemma...; 2009; Taddicken, M., Jers, C., Schenk, M.