Paul: This is a good question. First, is the length of the survey. A friend of mine had a survey that took over an hour to complete and wondered why the response rate was close to zero. So, keep the survey as short as possible.

Second, is the reward. The reward has to be attractive to the participants. For example, I was surveying college students so I raffled off a X-Box 360. One college student won a new game console!

Third, the topic should be of interest to the participants. I spend a lot of time trying to think of 'interesting" research topics. Let's face it, some research topics are boring and who cares?

Finally, choose your target audience carefully. For on survey, we set up a table outside a Wal-Mart store (in the USA). Of course, we asked the manager of the store first, but a Wal-Mart store gets a lot of foot traffic. We asked people entering the store to fill out a short survey. We also baked cupcakes and gave away free cupcakes.

Thanks for the replies.. so maybe I should skip the Truck? But on the other hand no one would want it because you need a Kat C licence to drive it 🤣. Maybe a hug from the Boa is a better reward 🙄

I'm sorry that I forget where I read about the evidence for it, but apparently offering prospective participants some kind of reward (even as enticing as a hug from a pet boa constrictor) was associated with a lower uptake.

It's probably difficult to determine the extent to which that is the case, but I'm certainly aware that in one field I've been interested in recently, one of the lowest response rates occurred in research where participants were offered the prospect of quite valuable shopping vouchers in a draw.

In my experience, response rates are likely to be high if prospective participants are told how much time is involved and if, right from the start, a survey is obviously well designed.

Henrik G.S. Arvidsson RE: "...offering a "date" with my pet Boa ..."

Your potential respondent demographic would be very skewed, but I don't think that that one would get past the research ethics committee.

https://www.verbotomy.com/jimage/snake.gif

Haha..I might be in serious trouble..trouble always seems to find me even if I try my best to qvoid it 🤣

most of the time the issue is total number of questions as people do not like to answer more than 15 questions including demographics.

-consider attention span which is very low in terms of engagement

and

-attention traps in the questionnaire to help you determine disengaged answers.

what you can do is to whether fit your population to a larger sample, which allows you to collect data from more groups or to cut your survey into 2 or 3 or even 4 parts and follow people in time-lags of 1 to 2 weeks.

another tool is to use online data collection services such as survey monkey. but i personally do not use these services.

you may also decrease the number of sample which you want to collect and I have seen reactions change when I say "I only need 5 more to complete" and those reluctant respondents tend to be helping (although in most cases I need more than 5 to complete but it gives a sense of hope) :)

this is related to solving a matrix which lets you interpret a smaller sample the same way you would for a larger one. (deduction methods) that is of course if you have the time and energy to solve matrix for each variable and their indicators (questions). E.g. 5 variables mean that you need to solve 5 different matrixes (matrices) to interpret a sample of 20 from 200. (not an easy task).

for instance Hair et al., (2010) states that you need not more than 200 samples if you want to have a proper interval but that is dependent on your approach as well as your analytical methods.

hope this helps you to keep the car :)

Thanks . I hooe so too.. 🤣🤣🤣

Depending on what the goals of your research are, I'd be worried about trying too hard to get enough people that it will bias your sample. If you have a randomized study within your survey that can be alright, but if your goal is to say something like "people wash their hands more in the morning than the evening" this would be problematic. How many respondents is your goal?

and if your target population is mice you should use a different strategy!

Three tips:

1. Unless your target respondents are highly self-motivated to complete the survey, it needs to be short; that is, down to 10-15 questions.

2. Questions must be clear and their corresponding answer alternatives must be unambiguous.

3. If possible, combine data collection procedures. Use the questionnaire only for data that are best collected through a survey. Collect additional data through other means, for example observation or secondary sources.

Good luck with your study!

It is decision making logics in entrepreneurship, I suspect one reason they they hesitate is because it involves psychological aspects... We are slowly moving ahead but I never experienced such difficulties ...the questionnaire is also relatively short.... Perhaps I should employ that Boa? :-) Have any of you ever been in the same situation where you look at the number of respondents and almost nothing happens.... I think we are approaching Boa time :-)

I think it also depends on the type of incentives offered. In more Westernised cultures money and vouchers may be a buy-in, however my experience in low income nations or remote communities money doesn't have much "value" as there's nothing to buy...so you'll have to think of ways to engage them in different ways. We have used gifts that were hard to come by in the community due to remoteness or educational materials for schools.

Maggie..thanks for your answer.... So time to think..I never had this problem before so now it is time to think out of the box...A lot of rewards are none relevant because of the Covid situation.. I was thinking something funny and out of the box but it might risk making us look less serious like a dinner date with a handsome guy like me or a hug from my Boa, Is fun but it might also make us look less serious...ideas?

I guess people conducting your survey are already interested in the topic of entrepreneurship....is there a free toolkit or resources available for beginners in entrepreneurship that they receive as a download after responding?

Many difficulties are there either for online, face-to-face, or paper based surveys. In my country, Lebanon, even the statistics companies could reach 2% response rate max. in online surveys!! Targeted people are still wondering about the expected outcomes they personally could have at the end of study to apply in their organizations. This is the no. 1 difficulty researchers are facing in Lebanon.

Heather. From Estonia and another problem is that Im not Estonian..but I agree with you. Thanks for your ideas 🙂

Hi.. Getting good participants is a general hurdle for all researchers but with proper planning, I feel you can increase participation rate. Use online surveys, find people who are genuinely interested in your topic and include them. Spread the word on social media and discussion forums to increase participation rate.

Good morning! In my case is very difficult to find participants with direct experiences in divestiture events. There a lot of participants with their own perceptions and opinions about certain direct events but don't have a real fact about the events that they know.

@shaheema. Yes it is truly a challenge. For me as a forreigner I think it might he even worse.. but we are getting there..slowly! @ Luis. I can imagine that in your fieldit is hard. Anything related with negative self perception and introspective analysis seems hard.. but I guess all we can do is our best.. or bring out the Boa, or pray to God or Allah or what we believe in..sometimes prayers seems to be needed 🙂

I went through this recently. But then I realised that consistency is the key to breakthrough. You just have to remind people and make it a point of duty to send out the link to the questionnaire daily. Send to strangers too

Thanks Nneka and every one else ..O enjoyed reading your answers 🙂

I am currently dealing with this issue - I need respondents who are members of crisis management teams due to Covid -19. It is very hard to reach them, especially because they are now overwhelmed with many tasks and activities... I write two or three mails until they probably had enough of me...and filled the survey.

Thanks weerakon for your answer, interesting! And jelena I know the feeling.. do you make any progress? For me it is slowly moving forward. Have you been in contqct with many hospitals?

I don't know if this will work where you are, but in the U.S., I rewarded participants with 1-5 scratch-off lottery tickets. They could win millions!! That gaming aspect made it enough fun that they were willing to give it a shot, and I could, very affordably, recruit enough participants.

I used this for an experiment that I thought would be difficult to find participants (who had a much more difficult task than surveys), and it worked very well!

I think for people to help you, you have to offer something in return. Many studios have a budget for this purpose and pay money to each subject for participating in the survey. Other times you can raffle a gift among the volunteers who have participated in the research. Sometimes the participants are more interested in knowing the results of the research, especially if they are groups of employees of a company. A meeting can be organized to share the results. You can also offer to carry out some type of intervention or training that may be related to the research topic and that may benefit the group of participants. Of course, it is essential to explain the purpose of the investigation and its usefulness, as well as ensuring the anonymity and confidential treatment of the data collected.

En estos momentos de pandemia es muy difícil, pero tengamos paciencia y hay que aplicar nuevas estrategias en posconfinamiento por: contratar encuestadores y entrenarlos (muchas veces demora, días, semanas pero logra).

Otro sería dictar cursos vía online gratis de temas interesantes y allí conocerlos a posibles participantes de la muestra y explicarles sobre temas de investigación de solución de problema de impacto y por favor colaboren con la encuesta.

Thanks you all for your replies. Highly interesting reading. Juan Carlos Apaza Paucara Grazias :-)

Instead of simply sending the questionnaire or an e mail, please explain what you propose to do and how it would help the society in general and the respondent in particular. This may have better appeal compared to mundane incentives like dinner or a ride in a mercedes. In fact, such incentive may even offend or put off a person.

Send your questionnaire to as many people as possible - the more the merrier.

@chris I fully agree! I hate it when ppl ask me to fill then in but mos often it is some one I know so... no choice 😳.. perhaps I should to like Stephen King and display a red ballon in my window.. seen IT? 🤣🎈

Try to sell the purpose of research.

I always conduct surveys of students of continuing education programs, where I conduct classes.

Kakub, I do but I think what scares them is the personality traits content...I thought of it the other day. Julia. Great idea! Im doing a survey on entrepreneurs and personality right now so students... Maybe some have entrepreneurial experience? This semester Im not teaching also but in general it was a great idea..thanks!

Yes, it is difficult to ask people to be willing to fill out the survey. Please try the following ways by online (facebook, zalo, linkedin etc): Offer them one to a few good books or salary survey results or whatever useful thing to apply to their work (softcopy); Send to groups of colleagues/friends asking for help; ask somebody to be a few representatives to their colleagues/friends and offer small cash (say about 2 - 3 USD per questionnaire to be filled out and requested the representative to provide you with list of emails to double-check if needed etc); Offer them the work applied results of your research once you have completed etc; Ask all friends to recommend and then often follow up/chase them until they have to help you :-) .

vinh... good idea! thanks

Very difficult for SMEs. I tried to do a survey on the food chain and it was very difficult

All the best

As a dissertation student I considerably struggled in capturing interest from firms, especially when they expected some form of return for their effort. In the end, I turned to acquaintances, who passed on a survey to people they knew. It did force me to change my research focus though. Covid-19 didn't make it easy for me.

@Anabel it is a good strategy. Sadly this is for a research article with a very limited target group.. I already regret my choice 🤣🤣🤣

I had the help of my former students, engineers in the food industry. Facebook had no results (maximum 5% of requests), by e-mail no more than 10%, by mail 5-8%, and most of the answers by interview, phone or face to face.

Thanks Silvius..former students is a good idea..br Henrik

Yes, but it depends on how they perceived you as a teacher: gang or damn

One of the things we did with my team was to see the person before approaching and find the opportune moment. My collaborators always approached as a couple, one man and one woman, the woman always starts to speak. The interviewers must give security and the appearance is very important. But if someone does not want to take part, nothing of what you do will matter.

You could also appeal to potential respondents' altruism and offer to enter all participants into a lottery with a prize for a charity of their choice. If you do this, there really must be a prize and one of the charities must be chosen to receive the prize that is traceable if someone asks.