Stimulating Responses to Mailed Questionnaires: A Review

Linsky, Arnold S.

doi:10.1086/268201

Cited by 350 publications

(159 citation statements)

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“…The survey questionnaire was sent in January 1999 to all 600 CEOs in the sample frame. We took several steps to ensure the highest possible response rate to the survey (Linsky, 1975; Groves, Cialdini, and Cooper, 1992; Fowler, 1993; Westphal, 1999): (1) feedback from a pretest was used to revise the format of the questionnaire and the instructions, making it easier to complete; (2) we highlighted in the cover letter that the survey was part of a continuing research project conducted by faculty in several major business schools, noting that hundreds of their peers had participated in prior surveys; (3) two additional waves of questionnaires were sent to nonrespondents, with the third wave preceded by an endorsement and appeal for participation by directors at a management consulting firm. Two hundred and fifty-three CEOs responded, a response rate of 42 percent.…”

Section: Methods Sample and Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting by with the Advice of Their Friends: CEOs' Advice Networks and Firms' Strategic Responses to Poor Performance

McDonald

Westphal

2003

Administrative Science Quarterly

365

355

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The order of authorship was determined alphabetically. We are grateful to Andrew Henderson, Monica Higgins, Timothy Pollock, Gerard Sanders, and seminar participants at the University of Texas at Austin for providing valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper. We also thank Linda Johanson, Joseph Porac, and the anonymous ASO reviewers for their constructive feedback and suggestions. This paper theorizes that relatively poor firm performance can prompt chief executive officers (CEOs) to seek more advice from executives of other firms who are their friends or similar to them and less advice from acquaintances or dissimilar others and suggests how and why this pattern of advice seeking could reduce firms' propensity to change corporate strategy in response to poor performance. We test our hypotheses with large-sample survey data on the identities of CEOs' advice contacts and archival data on firm performance and corporate strategy. The results confirm our hypotheses and show that executives' social network ties can influence firms' responses to economic adversity, in particular by inhibiting strategic change in response to relatively poor firm performance. Additional findings indicate that CEOs' advice seeking in response to low performance may ultimately have negative consequences for subsequent performance, suggesting how CEOs' social network ties could play an indirect role in organizational decline and downward spirals in firm performance.0 A number of interconnected literatures have sought to explain the robust finding from research in organization studies and strategic management that top executives often do not initiate significant changes in corporate strategy in response to poor firm performance and, paradoxically, may adhere even more firmly to current strategies in response to performance problems. A central theme in much of this literature is that systematic biases or "perceptual distortions" among top managers are at least partly responsible for strategic inertia in the face of poor performance (Starbuck, Greve,

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Section: Methods Sample and Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting by with the Advice of Their Friends: CEOs' Advice Networks and Firms' Strategic Responses to Poor Performance

McDonald

Westphal

2003

Administrative Science Quarterly

365

355

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“…Although researchers have investigated a variety of techniques to enhance the response to a mail survey, only a few strategies have consistently had positive effects on survey response, namely preliminary notifications, follow-up mailings, and prepaid monetary incentives (Fox, Crask, & Kim, 1988;Harvey, 1987;Heberlein & Baumgartner, 1978;Kanuk & Berenson, 1975;Linsky, 1975;Yammarino, Skinner, & Childers, 1991;Yu & Cooper, 1983). Other features that have been shown to enhance mail survey response are nonmonetary and promised incentives (Yu & Cooper, 1983), stamped return envelopes (Fox, Crask, & Kim, 1988;Harvey, 1987;Yammarino, Skinner, & Childers, 1991), special outgoing postage (Linsky, 1975), a favorable sponsor (Heberlein & Baumgartner, 1978;Linsky, 1975), a salient topic (Herberlein & Baumgartner, 1978), a questionnaire that is four pages or less (Yammarino, Skinner, & Childers, 1991), foot-in-the-door techniques (Yu & Cooper, 1983), and personalization (Yu & Cooper, 1983).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other features that have been shown to enhance mail survey response are nonmonetary and promised incentives (Yu & Cooper, 1983), stamped return envelopes (Fox, Crask, & Kim, 1988;Harvey, 1987;Yammarino, Skinner, & Childers, 1991), special outgoing postage (Linsky, 1975), a favorable sponsor (Heberlein & Baumgartner, 1978;Linsky, 1975), a salient topic (Herberlein & Baumgartner, 1978), a questionnaire that is four pages or less (Yammarino, Skinner, & Childers, 1991), foot-in-the-door techniques (Yu & Cooper, 1983), and personalization (Yu & Cooper, 1983).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of the researcher's physical attractiveness and gender on mail survey response

Dommeyer

2007

Psychology and Marketing

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This study examines how using a photo in the cover letter of a mail survey affects mail survey response. A 2 ϫ 2 factorial design was used that manipulated the physical attractiveness and gender of the supposed researcher that was depicted in the cover letter photo. In addition, a control group was used that received a cover letter without a photo. The results revealed the following: (1) a photo of the survey researcher does not enhance the response rate to the survey; (2) in the case of an attractive male researcher, a photo may dampen the response rate; and (3) within the factorial design, the only variable to have an effect on the survey's response rate was the gender variable: Photos depicting female researchers produced a higher response rate than photos depicting male researchers. This study also illustrated that a crude pretest of the survey procedures with students can, in some areas, produce fairly accurate predictions of the results of a field experiment.

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“…Standard stamps would be preferred to commemorative ones because the latter might appeal to stamp collectors. Linsky's (1975) review found only modest support for personalization of the mailing piece, and Forsythe (1977) found, in a survey of corporate executives, that it reduced the number of responses. Business reply is the least personal type of postage.…”

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confidence: 99%

Return Postage in Mail Surveys a Meta-Analysis

Armstrong¹,

Lusk²

1987

Public Opinion Quarterly

103

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. (1987). Return postage in mail surveys: a meta analysis. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/ marketing_papers/40Return postage in mail surveys: a meta analysis AbstractThis paper describes a five-step procedure for meta-analysis. Especially important was the contacting of authors of prior papers. This was done primarily to improve the accuracy of the coding; it also helped to identify unpublished research and to supply missing information. Application of the five-step procedure to the issue of return postage in mail surveys yielded significantly more papers and produced more definitive conclusions than those derived from traditional reviews. This meta-analysis indicated that business reply postage is seldom cost effective because first class postage yields an additional 9% return. Business reply rates were lower than for other first class postage in each of the 20 comparisons. CommentsPostprint version. This is a pre-copy-editing author-produced PDF of an article published in AbstractThis paper describes a five-step procedure for meta-analysis. Especially important was the contacting of authors of prior papers. This was done primarily to improve the accuracy of the coding; it also helped to identify unpublished research and to supply missing information. Application of the five-step procedure to the issue of return postage in mail surveys yielded significantly more papers and produced more definitive conclusions than those derived from traditional reviews. This meta-analysis indicated that business reply postage is seldom costeffective because first class postage yields an additional 9% return. Business reply rates were lower than for other first class postage in each of the 20 comparisons.

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Stimulating Responses to Mailed Questionnaires: A Review

Cited by 350 publications

References 0 publications

Getting by with the Advice of Their Friends: CEOs' Advice Networks and Firms' Strategic Responses to Poor Performance

Getting by with the Advice of Their Friends: CEOs' Advice Networks and Firms' Strategic Responses to Poor Performance

The effects of the researcher's physical attractiveness and gender on mail survey response

Return Postage in Mail Surveys a Meta-Analysis

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