Non-Response Error within Internet Surveys: A Cautionary Note

The use of the internet as a method to conduct survey research has expanded rapidly over the past decade. High speeds of response and lower expenses have driven this rapid growth. Relatively low response rates, however, suggest online surveys may be compromised by high levels of non-sampling error. This paper examines a major component of non-sampling error and the consequences that may be associated with internet survey non-response. Known population parameters are compared to point estimates from a census as well as a random sample of non-respondents in order to provide insight on the magnitude and direction of nonresponse error. Issue salience and response latency are found to exhibit a significant relationship to self-selection and response valance biases. Specifically, lower rates of nonresponse were obtained from respondents who perceived the topic of the survey as more important and patterns of response were more favorable among initial study participants

Antecedents of the attraction effect: An information-processing approach

This is the published version. Copyright 1993 American Marketing Association.Many researchers have demonstrated the existence of an attraction effect that increases the choice probability of an existing target brand by the introduction of a relatively inferior decoy brand. A causal model that links antecedent variables with the attraction effect is developed. It is found that the attraction effect is explained to a considerable extent by changes in the following 7 variables: 1. information relevance or stimulus meaningfulness, 2. product class knowledge, 3. task involvement, 4. perceived similarity between decoy and target, 5. relative brand preference, 6. share captured by decoy brand, and 7. perceived decoy popularity. The overall results were consistent across product classes studied, which included beer, cars, and television sets. The popularity explanation for attraction effect, alluded to by Huber, Payne, and Puto (1982), was tested and found to hold true