Response rate in industrial surveys conducted in India: Trends and implications

摘要

Despite a growth in the number of India-focussed articles appearing in leading business journals, there has been no systematic review of response rate to surveys conducted in India. India differs significantly from Western nations not only in its cultural norms but also in the practical difficulties of doing empirical research. This study examines the response rate for surveys undertaken in organisational and behavioural research with respondents based in India. We analysed more than 2000 studies published in the years 2005 and 2010 in 26 refereed academic journals, and we identified 77 studies that utilised surveys in the Indian context. Out of 77 studies, 46 reported the response rate. We examined the response rates in these 46 studies which covered more than 1000 organisational level respondents and 18 500 individual respondents. The average response rate for studies that utilised data collected from individuals was 64.62 with a standard deviation of 22.1, while the average response rate for studies that utilised data collected from organisations was 13.31 with a standard deviation of 6.19. There were a few similarities with studies in the Western context. The use of non-monetary incentives was found to be associated with higher response rates while the use of reminders was related to lower response rates. The response rate is also significantly different for organisation level as compared to individual level respondents. In contrast to the Western context, however, a few differences were observed. The average response rate for an organisational level survey is significantly lower, while for individual level respondent groups it is significantly higher than the average figures reported in the West. There is a significantly higher proportion of direct methods of survey data collection than through mail or Web, and these were also associated with a higher response rate than other modes. Further, use of legitimate authority to request participation in the survey has been adopted in many studies and it has been associated with higher than average response rates. Implications and recommendations are discussed.