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Web Survey Bibliography

Title Using the iPad as a Prize-Based Incentive to Boost Response Rates: A Case Study at Brigham Young University
Year 2013
Access date 30.05.2013
Abstract

In 2009, Dillman, Smyth, and Christian downplayed the use of prize drawing incentives for Webbased surveys and instead conclude that, like mail and telephone surveys, the most effective way to increase response rates in Web-based surveys is to use postal mail to deliver an invitation and prepaid cash incentive (pgs. 274-275). However, for many public, marketing, and social researchers, the feasibility of this approach is not only cost-prohibitive but naturally goes against the initial purposes of using the Internet in the first place—the reduction in time and ease of use. Further, when it comes to the advancement and public use of technological, data from 2009 already feels like it’s a century behind. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to revisit the question of lottery- or prize-based drawings, particularly in light of using new technological devices as incentives; in our case—the iPad3. During 2011 and 2012, the Office of Assessment and Analysis at Brigham Young University sent out several surveys to both students and alumni that included an iPad drawing as an incentive. Data gathered from these surveys clearly show a significant increase in response rates for both students and alumni. Some of these increases have ranged from 8% to 13%. Given these favorable increases compared to the relatively low cost of offering an iPad in a drawing, we feel this simple application would represent an attractive solution to maintaining a sustainable cost/benefit trajectory for future research and polling among other institutions. We will present further details surrounding this research including a discussion of demographics that identify who are more or less likely to respond to a survey that includes a drawing for an iPad.

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Year of publication2013
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
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