Reducing Respondent Burden with Efficient Survey Invitation Design
Increasing costs of data collection and decreasing response rates in social surveys has led to a proliferation of mixed-mode and self-administered surveys. In this context the design and content of survey invitations is increasingly important as it influences propensities to participate. By reducing...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:23dd21277f45467e85e94816ba763e8a 2023-05-15T16:50:41+02:00 Reducing Respondent Burden with Efficient Survey Invitation Design Hafsteinn Einarsson Alexandru Cernat Natalie Shlomo 2021-08-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2021.v15i3.7777 https://doaj.org/article/23dd21277f45467e85e94816ba763e8a EN eng European Survey Research Association https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/7777 https://doaj.org/toc/1864-3361 doi:10.18148/srm/2021.v15i3.7777 1864-3361 https://doaj.org/article/23dd21277f45467e85e94816ba763e8a Survey Research Methods, Vol 15, Iss 3 (2021) Survey invitations Non-response Data collection Mixed-mode Invitation letters Social sciences (General) H1-99 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2021.v15i3.7777 2022-12-30T22:50:41Z Increasing costs of data collection and decreasing response rates in social surveys has led to a proliferation of mixed-mode and self-administered surveys. In this context the design and content of survey invitations is increasingly important as it influences propensities to participate. By reducing the respondents’ burden of engaging with the survey invitation survey organisations can streamline the participation process. Reducing respondent burden by efficient invitation design may increase the number of early responders, the number overall responses and reduce non-response bias. This study implemented a randomised experiment where two design features thought to be associated with respondent burden were randomly manipulated: the length of the text and the location of the survey invitation link. The experiment was carried out in a sequential mixed-mode survey among young adults (18-35-year-old) in Iceland, where design features (text length and survey link location) of mailed letters with links to a web survey were manipulated. Results show that participants are more likely to participate in the survey when they receive shorter survey invitation texts and with survey links in the middle Additionally, short letters with links in the middle perform well compared to other letter types in terms of non-response bias and mean squared error. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Survey invitations Non-response Data collection Mixed-mode Invitation letters Social sciences (General) H1-99 |
spellingShingle |
Survey invitations Non-response Data collection Mixed-mode Invitation letters Social sciences (General) H1-99 Hafsteinn Einarsson Alexandru Cernat Natalie Shlomo Reducing Respondent Burden with Efficient Survey Invitation Design |
topic_facet |
Survey invitations Non-response Data collection Mixed-mode Invitation letters Social sciences (General) H1-99 |
description |
Increasing costs of data collection and decreasing response rates in social surveys has led to a proliferation of mixed-mode and self-administered surveys. In this context the design and content of survey invitations is increasingly important as it influences propensities to participate. By reducing the respondents’ burden of engaging with the survey invitation survey organisations can streamline the participation process. Reducing respondent burden by efficient invitation design may increase the number of early responders, the number overall responses and reduce non-response bias. This study implemented a randomised experiment where two design features thought to be associated with respondent burden were randomly manipulated: the length of the text and the location of the survey invitation link. The experiment was carried out in a sequential mixed-mode survey among young adults (18-35-year-old) in Iceland, where design features (text length and survey link location) of mailed letters with links to a web survey were manipulated. Results show that participants are more likely to participate in the survey when they receive shorter survey invitation texts and with survey links in the middle Additionally, short letters with links in the middle perform well compared to other letter types in terms of non-response bias and mean squared error. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hafsteinn Einarsson Alexandru Cernat Natalie Shlomo |
author_facet |
Hafsteinn Einarsson Alexandru Cernat Natalie Shlomo |
author_sort |
Hafsteinn Einarsson |
title |
Reducing Respondent Burden with Efficient Survey Invitation Design |
title_short |
Reducing Respondent Burden with Efficient Survey Invitation Design |
title_full |
Reducing Respondent Burden with Efficient Survey Invitation Design |
title_fullStr |
Reducing Respondent Burden with Efficient Survey Invitation Design |
title_full_unstemmed |
Reducing Respondent Burden with Efficient Survey Invitation Design |
title_sort |
reducing respondent burden with efficient survey invitation design |
publisher |
European Survey Research Association |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2021.v15i3.7777 https://doaj.org/article/23dd21277f45467e85e94816ba763e8a |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Survey Research Methods, Vol 15, Iss 3 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/7777 https://doaj.org/toc/1864-3361 doi:10.18148/srm/2021.v15i3.7777 1864-3361 https://doaj.org/article/23dd21277f45467e85e94816ba763e8a |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2021.v15i3.7777 |
_version_ |
1766040809276178432 |