Determining strategies to increase response rates in transport surveys of small shop-based businesses

Abstract

Increasing representation of small business perspectives in policy research would benefit from identifying strategies to increase response rates. Despite the significance of the issue, there is inconsistent reporting amongst small business research about issues such as sampling, recruitment and survey design. Reporting on such issues may help address the under-representation of small business respondents and help reduce wasting research resources on less effective strategies. For policy matters that have the potential to disrupt how small business owners run their business, this is of particular importance. This paper reports on a survey of small businesses about changes to the transport accessibility features of a town centre that have the potential to affect the supply of car parking. Based on a review of the available literature, strategies were adopted to reduce respondent burden and maximise engagement. The paper presents an analysis of recruitment approaches in the first wave of the survey and demonstrates how the refinements to the recruitment approach were successful in achieving an increase in response rate from 40% to 47%.

Keywords:

• shop-based business
• transport policy
• survey recruitment
• survey design
• response rates
• web-assisted personal interviews

Notes

1. There is no universal definition of small business. In Australia, small business is defined as less than 20 employees. Small businesses account for approximately 91% of registered businesses in the Australian economy Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2008. 8175.0 – Counts of Australian Business Operators: 2006 to 2007. Canberra: Australian Government.

2. As a point of clarification, a sampling frame refers to a complete list of all members of a particular population under investigation. Sampling frame reliability can be compromised by being out-of-date and data ambiguity such as misspellings and duplicate listings.

3. Regulatory Focus Theory suggests an individual's goal-orientated behaviour is different if they are focused on advancement needs (Promotion Focus) or security needs (Prevention Focus), each Regulatory Focus giving rise to specific types of strategies. Although the theory has been used to identify innate tendencies, individuals are not constrained to one type.