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Web Survey Bibliography

Title Persuasiveness on the Internet: Factors influencing participation in Web survey
Author Zajac, J.
Year 2005
Access date 24.04.2005
Abstract Persuasiveness is one of the crucial factors of social impact. In text-based communication, where social information is limited, persuasiveness is manifested in special way. Due to absence of many non-verbal cues, specific features, such as register, sender attributes (e.g. e-mail address or chatter's nickname) and additional information included in signature are supposed to gain importance. Various social actors, from counselors and social activists through business till swindlers and bluffers, strive to appear credible on the Internet and to persuade something to Internet users. That regards also Web-based research - scientists have to prompt potential respondents to take part in their research.Three specific factors: register of the message (formal vs. very informal), personal e-mail address of the sender (univeristy e-mail vs. free provider) and e-mail signature (long, explaining the aim circumstances of the research vs. short, without any explanation) were examined in experiment. E-mails with a request to fulfill a short online questionnaire were sent to 16000 randomly selected users of one of the biggest Polish free e-mail providers. The Web questionnaire regarded intensity and patterns of Internet usage and demographic variables.920 valid questionnaires were collected (response rate 5.75%). Surprisingly, none of 3 factors had any influence on response rate. Howevwer, respondents turned out to be distinguishable from general populations of portal users and Polish Internet users. The bulk of respondents were core users: young, relatively experienced, using computer and the Internet for at least few hours a day and having high IT skills. Most of respondents fulfilled the questionnaire while being at home, using leased line (not a modem, as majority of Internet users in Poland do) and, although a 2-weeks deadline was given, during 24 hours after the e-mails were sent. These results suggest that features of contact e-mail have no impact on its persuasiveness and on online survey response rates. The latter depend on respondents' patterns of Internet usage, not on the way they are contacted.
Access/Direct link Homepage - conference (abstract)
Year of publication2005
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
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Web survey bibliography - 2005 (76)

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