An Experimental Investigation into Cross-National Mail Survey Response Rates
- PDF / 2,524,142 Bytes
- 7 Pages / 432 x 765 pts Page_size
- 29 Downloads / 194 Views
John Saunders** Universityof Technology, Loughborough
Abstract.Thisstudyinvestigatesthe effectsof foreignand domestic sourcemanipulationson cross-nationalresponseratesof business people in two countries: the United States and Britain. The hypothesisthatmanagersfromtheU.S.A. aremorelikelyto respond than thosefromBritainis also tested. Resultssuggestthat foreign sourceeffects do not raise responserates. For Britishmanagers, findingssuggestthathighercomplianceresultsfromthe 'domestic' source.Responsesfrom USAmanagerswere no higherthan from their Britishcounterparts.The implicationsof these findingsfor cross-nationalmail surveysare discussed. INTRODUCTION The mail survey is a valuable tool for gatheringdatain cross-nationalresearch (e.g., Glazer[1966]; GreenandWhite [1976]; DouglasandShoemaker[1981]). A majorfactoraccountingfor its utility is the abilityto coverwidely dispersed populations at low cost and without the need to train field staff. However, great care must be taken to ensure that the survey design leads to valid and useful information.The absenceof an interviewermeansthatthe questionnaire is 'free-standing';all instructionsmust be clear and questionsmust be free of ambiguities [Dymsza 1984]. Moreover nonresponse rates tend to be worse than for telephone and face-to-face interviews, raising the possibility of nonresponsebias [Yu and Cooper 1983]. In cross-national research additional problems may exist such as the nonavailability of sampling frames, poor mail services and high levels of *DavidJobber,BA (Manchester),MSc (Warwick),PhD (Bradford)is Lecturerin Marketingat the Universityof BradfordManagementCentre.Industrialexperience was gainedin marketingresearchandpersonalsellingwith TubeInvestments.His researchspecialismis theprovisionof information formarketingdecisionmaking, on whichhe haspublishedwidely. **JohnSaunders, BTech(Loughborough), MBA(Cranfield), PhD(Bradford) is National WestminsterBank Professor of Marketingat the University of Technology, Loughborough. Previouslywith theHawkerSiddeleyGroupandBritishAerospace, he was workedacademicallyandconsultedwidely in EuropeandSouthEastAsia. His majorresearchinterestsaremarketingstrategyandmarketmodelling. Received: June 1987; Revised: October 1987 & March 1988; Accepted: March 1988. 483
Palgrave Macmillan Journals is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Journal of International Business Studies ® www.jstor.org
484
JOURNALOF INTERNATIONALBUSINESS STUDIES, FALL 1988
illiteracyamongthe targetpopulations.However,the existenceof sampling framesformanyindustrialpopulationsmeansthatmailquestionnaires canbe effectivein cross-national surveysof businessmen[DouglasandCraig1983]. As countriesdevelop,thisusemayhaveevengreaterapplicationinthefuture. Whentheresearchsituationsuggeststheuseof a mailsurveythemajorproblem facingthe industrialmarketingresearcheris the possibilityof low response rates.Responseratesfrombusinessmen tendtobefarlowerthanfromhousehold populations[JobberandSaunders1986] andsingle-figureresponseratesare notunco
Data Loading...
