Social-psychological Aspects of Probability-based Online Panel Participation

Sebastian, Kocar,; Lavrakas, Paul J.

doi:10.1093/ijpor/edad012

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 21 publications

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“…In addition, we assembled all the communications that had been used with these SRC panel members (including those for recruitment and maintenance) and then performed a qualitative content analysis to identify the themes that the SRC used to try to persuade the potential and existing panelists to join and stay active in the panel (cf. Kocar and Lavrakas 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Low-cost Method to Try to Improve Panel Survey Representation

Lavrakas,

Kocar

2023

Surv Pract

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Survey researchers are perpetually faced with the challenge of trying to balance quality, time, and cost. However, it is essentially impossible for surveys to achieve high quality, a quick turnaround time, and low costs. So, most often researchers settle for trying to achieve two of these three. As survey costs have escalated, funders have become unwilling to keep spending more on surveys, and what often happens is that quality is compromised. It is within this context that we propose a low-cost approach to improve panel survey quality by increasing a panel’s representation of its target population. This includes both the quality of the initial sample recruited to join the panel and the sample that remains active within the panel. Our approach addresses a way to raise the representativeness of initial and on-going panel samples essentially without raising on-going costs. We present a case study of this approach, using the Life in Australia™ panel. We began by asking 1,557 panel members an open-ended question about why they joined and remained in the panel. We then content analyzed the responses to create quantitative data which could be analyzed statistically. Also, we gathered all the communications used with these panel members and performed a qualitative content analysis to identify the themes used to try to persuade the sampled panelists to join and stay active in the panel. We then compared the two sets of findings. There were six motivations that panelists reported that were not included in the recruitment and maintenance communications that were used with potential panelists and currently inactive panelists. We also found that panelists with certain background characteristics were more likely to report certain motivations for being in the panel. We acknowledge that our approach is not a panacea but believe it adds to the “toolbox” of panel companies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Low-cost Method to Try to Improve Panel Survey Representation

Lavrakas,

Kocar

2023

Surv Pract

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Good Words Are Worth Much, and Cost Little: Can Panel Maintenance Communication Be Effective in Increasing Survey Completion in a Volunteer Online Panel?

Kocar

2024

International Journal of Public Opinion Research

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Online panels tend to be more affected by nonresponse bias than cross-sectional online and offline surveys due to an accumulating effect of attrition over time. Further, nonprobability panels that do not offer monetary rewards can be more sensitive to nonparticipation, but the existing research on panel maintenance strategies to increase survey completion in nonprobability/volunteer online panels is still scarce. To identify between-wave communications that could serve as cost-effective panel maintenance activities to increase survey completion, a survey experiment was carried out, and two solutions were empirically tested: sending survey results in a report (a long report or an infographic) and sending a prenotification before the following survey (a short or a longer prenotification). The results showed a small effect of sending an infographic, either with or without a short prenotification. Additionally, a positive effect was observed when emailing a short prenotification to those who completed the previous survey questionnaire, indicating a differential impact of between-wave communication. In summary, this study demonstrates how the survey completion rate can be increased in nonprobability online panels with non-monetary incentives, which can be incorporated into panel maintenance strategies for different types of panels.

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Social-psychological Aspects of Probability-based Online Panel Participation

Cited by 2 publications

References 21 publications

A Low-cost Method to Try to Improve Panel Survey Representation

A Low-cost Method to Try to Improve Panel Survey Representation

Good Words Are Worth Much, and Cost Little: Can Panel Maintenance Communication Be Effective in Increasing Survey Completion in a Volunteer Online Panel?

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