Web Surveys In Business Research: Use, Design And Construction Issues

Online surveys have the potential to dramatically improve the distribution of surveys, reduce the cost of administering surveys and increase survey response rates.  This can lead to an overall improvement in the quality of the research being conducted.  We first discuss the advantages and potential problems associated with online surveys.  We then discuss survey website design issues and provide guidance regarding the use of various features.  We also discuss  several website construction considerations.  Finally, we report on several viable approaches for building an online survey system, which range from inexpensive and technically challenging to expensive and easy to use and build. 

How Do Information Ambiguity and Timing of Contextual Information Affect Managers’ Goal Congruence in Making Investment Decisions in Good Times vs. Bad Times?

Information ambiguity is prevalent in organizations and may influence management decisions. This study draws upon research on information bias and ambiguity research to empirically test how information ambiguity and non-financial factors (e.g., interpersonal information) affect managers’ capital budgeting decisions when in good vs. bad times. Ninety-two managers completed two experiments. In Experiment One, the information was presented sequentially. Our results show that without the presence of non-financial factors, managers tend to maximize the firm value. After receiving non-financial factors, a significant number of managers switched to the self-serving option in good times (the gain condition) but stayed with firm-value maximization in bad times (the loss condition). In Experiment Two, the information was presented simultaneously in the presence and absence of ambiguity. We found that in the presence of ambiguity, the information presentation has no impact on managers’ self-serving bias in good times or their firm-value maximization tendency in bad times. Interestingly, we also observed managers’ use of interpersonal information even in the absence of ambiguity. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2005information ambiguity, firm-value maximization, self-serving bias, presentation mode,