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Web Survey Bibliography

Title The Effect of Emphasizing the Web Option in a Mixed-mode Establishment Survey
Year 2016
Access date 09.06.2016
Abstract
In a series of mixed-mode establishment surveys fielded for the IRS since 2010, we have noticed higher response rates via the web survey option than the mail survey. Moreover, some respondents have reported that that wished they had noticed the web option before completing the mail survey because they would have preferred to complete the survey online. In light of these two observations, we test the impact of making the web option more visible. Some researchers have observed a negative effect of concurrent mode presentation on overall response rate (Medway & Fulton, 2012). On the other hand, there is literature that suggests that givingrespondents the option to respond via their preferred mode increases overall response rates (Olson, Smyth, & Wood, 2012). Further, very few of these examinations have investigated these effects in the administration of an establishment survey. In the present study, we changed the location of web access information in a test version of the paper version of the Tax Year 2014 Information Return Burden Survey and measured the effect on overall response rate as well as the number of web vs. mail survey completes. Our two hypotheses were: 1) Making the web option more prevalent in one experimental condition will increase the overall response rate due to the higher visibility of the preferred mode rather than depressing response rates as predicted by the Paradox of Choice (Schwartz, 2004), and 2) The more prevalently-displayed web option information will result in an increased number of web completes relative to mail completes due to increased awareness of the availability of the web option.
 
 
Year of publication2016
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
Print

Web survey bibliography - The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) 71st Annual Conference, 2016 (107)

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