Mail survey response behavior: A conceptualization of motivating factors and an empirical study

In addition to proposing an integrated conceptualization of mail survey response behavior, this article presents an empirical study which examines the potential of source and appeal variations on response rate, response speed, and response completeness. The findings of this empirical study are presented and compared to a similar study for the purpose of validating source and appeal effects on mail survey response and the conceptual framework. The results, not totally in agreement with earlier findings, generally lend support for the untapped potential of source and appeal in influencing mail survey response behavior. There is also statistical justification for two of the six motivators comprising the proposed conceptual framework.

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