Web Survey Bibliography
Relevance & Research Question: Currently the research industry has to deal with a decreasing cost per interview whilst having to handle declining response rates at the same time. Therefore a major challenge consists in finding other motivators than monetary incentives to maintain or even increase the motivation to participate in studies. Against this backdrop a good, surveytaining questionnaire design might motivate sufficiently to be able to reduce the monetary incentive. The question is how to assess the monetary value of a good questionnaire design.
Methods & Data: This paper combines different studies to address the monetary value of a good survey design. The first study was designed to determine the elasticity of survey satisfaction in regards to different incentives and different lengths of interview. The second study determines the impact of a surveytaining questionnaire design on the respondents’ satisfaction with a survey. Both studies together underpin an expectation about the amount of monetary incentive needed to level out the overall satisfaction between a normal and a surveytaining study. Finally a third study was conducted to assess the substance of this expectation.
Results: The first study replicates the known fact that incentives do not have a strong impact on the overall satisfaction with a single survey. However there are strong indications of thresholds that call into question any linear correlation between incentives, length of interview and the overall satisfaction. The second study shows that the impact of a good questionnaire design on the satisfaction of participants is high. Respondents are significantly more satisfied when they get a better questionnaire. From this perspective, the monetary incentive has to do a lot to get the same level of satisfaction. Finally the third study to confirm the expected value of a good survey layout sheds some light on the thresholds of survey satisfaction.
Added Value: Our study helps to benchmark the quality of a survey from a respondents perspective against the incentive. It can be shown that the amount of an incentive does not have to correlate solely with the length of interview, but might be affected by a huge amount of other factors.
GOR Homepage (abstract) / (presentation)
Web survey bibliography - Tress, F. (6)
- Online Qualitative Research – Personality Matters ; 2014; Tress, F., Doessel, C.
- The monetary value of good questionnaire design; 2013; Tress, F.
- 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.
- Bad Boy Matrix Question – Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?; 2012; Tress, F.
- Rich Profiles – Or: What's the problem with self-disclosure data?; 2011; Tress, F.
- Are well-selected panelists better respondents? Insights into the effect of a master screener on panel...; 2010; Irmer, C., Tress, F.