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Root, D and Blismas, N G (2003) Increasing questionnaire responses from industry: practices surrounding the use of postal questionnaires. In: Greenwood, D J (Ed.), Proceedings 19th Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2003, Brighton, UK. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, Vol. 2, 623–31.
- Type: Conference Proceedings
- Keywords: practice; questionnaires; research methods; response rate; survey
- ISBN/ISSN: 0 9534161 8 6
- URL: http://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/ar2003-623-631_Root_and_Blismas.pdf
- Abstract:
Postal surveys are used widely to gather data in construction management research at undergraduate and postgraduate level. This is in spite of generally poor response rates resulting in an attitude within the construction management community that rates of 20-25% are deemed acceptable. Due to the relatively scarce resources available to undergraduates and many postgraduates, large sample sizes become difficult to obtain casting serious doubts on the strength of the data collected contributing to concerns over the quality of the research that is being undertaken. This paper offers practical advice on how to maximize responses to postal surveys drawing on the experience of the authors over a number of construction management research projects. Whilst much literature exists in the area of questionnaire design, personal engagement and process simplification are identified as two key areas that researchers can focus on to increase response rates. Empirical evidence is presented from a number of projects to indicate the how response rates can be improved at limited cost in time and resources.