IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/qualqt/v43y2009i1p123-136.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The potential of a multi-mode data collection design to reduce non response bias. The case of a survey of employers

Author

Listed:
  • Emanuela Sala
  • Peter Lynn

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to compare two alternative survey designs in terms of resultant response rates, non response bias and cost. The first design is a simple postal survey with follow-up mailings; the second design is a two-phase multi-mode design, where the postal survey is followed at the second phase by a telephone survey of non-respondents. We present a case study based on a survey of employers. In this study we find evidence that the sample obtained using only postal methods is biased in important respects. Bias is not apparent in the demographic characteristics of the employees. But bias is observed in some of the employees’ employment characteristics and some of the characteristics of the firms in which they work. The multi mode design seems, overall, to have reduced or removed the bias of the postal sample. Only in marginal respects was some further bias introduced. We also compare costs of the two designs, to enable a comparison of cost-effectiveness at bias reduction. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009

Suggested Citation

  • Emanuela Sala & Peter Lynn, 2009. "The potential of a multi-mode data collection design to reduce non response bias. The case of a survey of employers," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 123-136, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:43:y:2009:i:1:p:123-136
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-007-9148-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11135-007-9148-5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11135-007-9148-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lynn, Peter & Jäckle, Annette & Sala, Emanuela & P. Jenkins, Stephen, 2004. "The effects of dependent interviewing on responses to questions on income sources," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-16, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    2. Stephen P. Jenkins & Lorenzo Cappellari & Peter Lynn & Annette Jäckle & Emanuela Sala, 2006. "Patterns of consent: evidence from a general household survey," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 169(4), pages 701-722, October.
    3. Lynn, Peter & Sala, Emanuela, 2004. "Measuring change in employment characteristics: the effects of dependent interviewing," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-26, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    4. Lynn, Peter & Jäckle, Annette & Sala, Emanuela & P. Jenkins, Stephen, 2004. "Validation of survey data on income and employment: the ISMIE experience," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-14, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Araceli Mateos & Margarita Corral, 2022. "Partial non-response in political elite studies: an approach to parliamentary elites in Latin America," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 4089-4106, December.
    2. AlQershi, Nagwan & Saufi, Roselina Binti Ahmad & Ismail, Noor Azizi & Mohamad, Mohd Rosli Bin & Ramayah, T. & Muhammad, Nik Maheran Nik & Yusoff, Mohd Nor Hakimin Bin, 2023. "The moderating role of market turbulence beyond the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine crisis on the relationship between intellectual capital and business sustainability," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PB).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lynn, Peter & Sala, Emanuela, 2005. "The impact of a mixed-mode data collection design on non response bias on a business survey," ISER Working Paper Series 2005-16, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    2. Lynn, Peter & Jäckle, Annette & Sala, Emanuela & P. Jenkins, Stephen, 2004. "The impact of interviewing method on measurement error in panel survey measures of benefit receipt: evidence from a validation study," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-28, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    3. Jäckle, Annette, 2005. "Does dependent interviewing really increase efficiency and reduce respondent burden?," ISER Working Paper Series 2005-11, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    4. Korbmacher, Julie M. & Schröder, Mathis, 2013. "Consent when Linking Survey Data with Administrative Records: The Role of the Interviewer," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 7(2), pages 115-131.
    5. Stephen P. Jenkins & Lorenzo Cappellari & Peter Lynn & Annette Jäckle & Emanuela Sala, 2006. "Patterns of consent: evidence from a general household survey," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 169(4), pages 701-722, October.
    6. Peter Lynn & Annette Jäckle & Stephen P. Jenkins & Emanuela Sala, 2012. "The impact of questioning method on measurement error in panel survey measures of benefit receipt: evidence from a validation study," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 175(1), pages 289-308, January.
    7. Lynn, Peter & Jäckle, Annette & Sala, Emanuela & P. Jenkins, Stephen, 2004. "Linking household survey and administrative record data: what should the matching variables be?," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-23, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    8. Sala, Emanuela & Knies, Gundi & Burton, Jonathan, 2013. "Propensity to consent to data linkage: experimental evidence from the Innovation Panel on the role of three survey design features," Understanding Society Working Paper Series 2013-05, Understanding Society at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    9. Jäckle, Annette, 2006. "Dependent interviewing: a framework and application to current research," ISER Working Paper Series 2006-32, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    10. Lynn, Peter & Jäckle, Annette, 2004. "Dependent interviewing and seam effects in work history data," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-24, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    11. Lynn, Peter & Sala, Emanuela, 2004. "Measuring change in employment characteristics: the effects of dependent interviewing," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-26, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    12. Lynn, Peter & Sala, Emanuela, 2004. "The contact and response process in business surveys: lessons from a multimode survey of employers in the UK," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-12, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    13. Lynn, Peter & Sala, Emanuela & Noah Uhrig, S.C., 2008. "The development and implementation of a coding scheme to analyse interview dynamics in the British Household Panel Survey," ISER Working Paper Series 2008-19, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    14. Lugtig Peter & Jäckle Annette, 2014. "Can I Just Check...? Effects of Edit Check Questions on Measurement Error and Survey Estimates," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 30(1), pages 45-62, March.
    15. Sala, Emanuela & Noah Uhrig, S.C., 2009. "When change matters: the effect of dependent interviewing on survey interaction in the British Household Panel Study," ISER Working Paper Series 2009-09, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    16. Burton, Jonathan & Laurie, Heather & Uhrig, S.C. Noah, 2010. "Understanding Society Innovation Panel Wave 2: results from methodological experiments," Understanding Society Working Paper Series 2010-04, Understanding Society at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    17. Babette Bühler & Katja Möhring & Andreas P. Weiland, 2022. "Assessing dissimilarity of employment history information from survey and administrative data using sequence analysis techniques," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 4747-4774, December.
    18. Cherkashin, Ivan & Demidova, Svetlana & Imai, Susumu & Krishna, Kala, 2009. "The inside scoop: Acceptance and rejection at the journal of international economics," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 120-132, February.
    19. Coisnon, Thomas & Rousselière, Damien & Rousselière, Samira, 2018. "Information on biodiversity and environmental behaviors: a European study of individual and institutional drivers to adopt sustainable gardening practices," Working Papers 272611, Institut National de la recherche Agronomique (INRA), Departement Sciences Sociales, Agriculture et Alimentation, Espace et Environnement (SAE2).
    20. Longhi, Simonetta & Brynin, Malcolm, 2010. "Occupational change in Britain and Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 655-666, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:43:y:2009:i:1:p:123-136. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.