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An experimental study on the impact of contact design on web survey participation
Maineri,Angelica Van Mol,Christof
Maineri,Angelica
Van Mol,Christof
Abstract
In higher education institutions, web surveys are frequently used for educational, research, and administrative purposes. One of the consequences of this is increasing oversurveying of higher education students, leading to low response rates. This naturally has important implications for the validity of web survey results. Consequently, we set up a methodological experiment at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, whereby the total student population was invited to participate in a web survey in order to investigate which features of contact design can positively influence web survey participation. We particularly focus on subject line content, the communication of deadlines and their timing, as well as the delays between contact moments. The results reveal that students were more likely to respond to a web survey invitation when the subject line is written in the national language in multilingual contexts. Furthermore, although the findings did not indicate an advantage of using a deadline, they also suggested that if a deadline is to be used, a longer deadline might be more beneficial.
Description
Funding The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Date
2022
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Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
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Journal Issue
Keywords
INTERNET, QUALITY, RESPONSE RATES, RETENTION, SALIENCE, SUBJECT LINES, deadlines, experimental design, online surveys, reminders, survey fatigue, web survey participation, web surveys
Citation
Maineri, A & Van Mol, C 2022, 'An experimental study on the impact of contact design on web survey participation', Social Science Computer Review, vol. 40, no. 5, 08944393211003482, pp. 1203-1222. https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393211003482