Web Survey Bibliography
Relevance & Research Question:
The usage of incentives is a widely accepted measure in survey business to enhance response rates. The impact of incentives is extensively tested in the context of mail survey and interviewer mediated modes of data collection. Less is known about incentives in the context of panel recruitment especially for offline-recruited online panels. Furthermore most experimental studies on incentives focus on the response rate as the only outcome variable. The effect of paying respondents on the sample composition has not been given much attention. Even though there is some evidence that some groups that are usually underrepresented in surveys (e.g. low educated) are motivated by the incentive.
Methods & Data:
We conducted three experiments within a telephone recruitment interview for a probability-based online panel during January 2011 and August 2011. At the end of the interview all respondents were asked whether they are willing to join a scientific online panel and fill out online questionnaires on a monthly basis.
In the first experiment we tested conditions 1) and 2). In the second and third experiment conditions 3 through 5 were tested. The interviews of experiment 2 and 3 were conducted by two different institutes and varied in specific interview aspects.
1. 5 Euros + additional 20 Euros bonus for filling out all eight online interviews of the study
2. 10 Euros + 20 Euros bonus
3. 5 Euros, no bonus
4. 2 Euros, no bonus
5. No incentives (control)
The dependent variables are willingness to participate in the online panel, the rate of actual participation in the first online interview, and the overall response rate. The effect of incentive on sample composition is analyzed as well.
Results: First analyses show interesting results. The expected tendency that higher incentives produce higher response rates is confirmed. However, we cannot find any differences in sample composition between the experimental groups.
Added Value: The experiments shed light on usage of incentives during the panel recruitment process. It can be shown that using incentives in the second step of a multistep recruitment process has no (further) implication on panel composition.
GOR Homepage (abstract) / (presentation)
Web survey bibliography - General Online Research Conference (GOR) 2012 (26)
- Is „chapterisation“ a viable alternative to traditional progress indicators ?; 2012; Spicer, R., Dowling, Z.
- Exploring New Pathways to Survey Recruitment; 2012; Bilgram, V., Stadler, D.Jawecki, G.
- Understanding selection bias in a worldwide, volunteer web-survey; 2012; Tijdens, K., Steinmetz, S.
- Does Mode Matter? Initial Evidence from the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES); 2012; Blumenstiel, J. E., Rossmann, J.
- The Representativity of Web Surveys of the General Population compared to Traditional Modes and Mixed...; 2012; Klausch, L. T., Schouten, B., Hox, J.
- Surveytainment 2.0: Why investing 10 more minutes more in constructing your questionnaire is worth considering...; 2012; Muehle, A., Tress, F., Schmidt, S., Winkler, T.
- Market research online community (MROC) versus focus group; 2012; Zuber, M.
- Data quality in MAWI and CAWI; 2012; Mavletova, A. M., Blasius, J.
- Time use data collection using Smartphones: Results of a pilot study among experienced and inexperienced...; 2012; Scherpenzeel, A., Sonck, N., Fernee, H., Morren, Me.
- Scrutinizing Dynamics – Rolling panel waves in theory and practice; 2012; Faas, T., Blumenberg, J. N.
- Little experience with technology as a cause of nonresponse in online surveys; 2012; Struminskaya, B., Schaurer, I., Kaczmirek, L., Bandilla, W.
- Automatic Forwarding on Web Surveys – Some Outlines and Remarks; 2012; Selkaelae, A.
- Thinking, Planning & Operationalizing Empirical Mixed Methods Research Design; 2012; Ruhi, U.
- Continuous large-scale volunteer web-surveys: The experience of Lohnspiegel and WageIndicator; 2012; Oez, F.
- Is Pretesting Established Among Online Survey Tool Users?; 2012
- An Evaluation of Two Non-Reactive Web Questionnaire Pretesting Methods; 2012; Lenzner, T.
- Recommendations for implementing online surveys and simple experiments in social and behavioural research...; 2012; Hewson, C. M.
- High potential for mobile Web surveys: Findings from a survey representative for German Internet users...; 2012; Funke, F., Wachenfeld, A.
- A taxonomy of paradata for web surveys and computer assisted self interviewing (Casi); 2012; Callegaro, M.
- Can Social Media Research replace traditional research methods?; 2012; Faber, T., Einhorn, M., Hofmann, O., Loeffler, M.
- Bad Boy Matrix Question – Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?; 2012; Tress, F.
- Matrix vs. Single Question Formats in Web Surveys: Results from a large scale experiment; 2012; Klausch, L. T., de Leeuw, E. D., Hox, J., de Jongh, A., Roberts , A.
- Effects of Static versus Dynamic Formatting Instructions for Open-Ended Numerical Questions in Web Surveys...; 2012; Kunz, T., Fuchs, M.
- FamilyVote – Conducting online surveys with children and families; 2012; Geissler, H., Peeters, H.
- The influence of social desirability on data quality in face-to-face and web surveys; 2012; Keusch, F.
- Reducing the Threat of Sensitive Questions in Online Surveys; 2012; Couper, M. P.