Designing and Conducting Business Surveys

Designing and Conducting Business Surveys

Released August 2013
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9780470903049

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Book description

Designing and Conducting Business Surveys provides a coherent overview of the business survey process, from start to finish. It uniquely integrates an understanding of how businesses operate, a total survey error approach to data quality that focuses specifically on business surveys, and sound project management principles. The book brings together what is currently known about planning, designing, and conducting business surveys, with producing and disseminating statistics or other research results from the collected data. This knowledge draws upon a variety of disciplines such as survey methodology, organizational sciences, sociology, psychology, and statistical methods. The contents of the book formulate a comprehensive guide to scholarly material previously dispersed among books, journal articles, and conference papers.

This book provides guidelines that will help the reader make educated trade-off decisions that minimize survey errors, costs, and response burden, while being attentive to survey data quality. Major topics include:

  • Determining the survey content, considering user needs, the business context, and total survey quality

  • Planning the survey as a project

  • Sampling frames, procedures, and methods

  • Questionnaire design and testing for self-administered paper, web, and mixed-mode surveys

  • Survey communication design to obtain responses and facilitate the business response process

  • Conducting and managing the survey using paradata and project management tools

  • Data processing, including capture, editing, and imputation, and dissemination of statistical outputs

Designing and Conducting Business Surveys is an indispensable resource for anyone involved in designing and/or conducting business or organizational surveys at statistical institutes, central banks, survey organizations, etc.; producing statistics or other research results from business surveys at universities, research organizations, etc.; or using data produced from business surveys. The book also lays a foundation for new areas of research in business surveys.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Wiley Series in Survey Methodology
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Preface
  7. Contributors
  8. Abbreviations
  9. Chapter 1: Surveys and Business Surveys
    1. 1.1 The Objective of This Book
    2. 1.2 The Statistical Production Process
    3. 1.3 Surveys
    4. 1.4 Types of Business Data Outputs
    5. 1.5 Use of Business Data Outputs
    6. 1.6 Obtaining Business Data
    7. 1.7 Business Surveys
    8. 1.8 Overview of the Book
    9. Acknowledgments
    10. Appendix
  10. Chapter 2: The Business Context and its Implications for the Survey Response Process
    1. 2.1 The Business Context from the Perspective of the Organizational Sciences
    2. 2.2 A Comprehensive Approach Integrating the Business Context and the Survey Response Process
    3. 2.3 Summary
    4. Aknowledgments
  11. Chapter 3: Quality Issues in Business Surveys
    1. 3.1 Survey Quality from a User/Producer Perspective
    2. 3.2 Sample-Related Quality Issues
    3. 3.3 Measurement-Related Quality Issues
    4. 3.4 Sample and Measurement Issues Combined
    5. Acknowledgment
  12. Chapter 4: Planning the Survey
    1. 4.1 Introduction
    2. 4.2 Business Surveys and Project Management Principles
    3. 4.3 Specifying and Planning the Survey
    4. 4.4 Required Resources
    5. 4.5 The Timetable
    6. 4.6 Planning Managing, Controlling, Monitoring, and Evaluation of the Survey Project
    7. 4.7 Risk Management
    8. 4.8 Finalizing the Project Plan and Getting Started
    9. 4.9 Summary and Progress Status Overview
    10. Acknowledgment
  13. Chapter 5: Sampling and Estimation for Business Surveys
    1. 5.1 Basic Principles
    2. 5.2 Registers and Frames
    3. 5.3 Sample Design
    4. 5.4 Estimation
    5. 5.5 Outliers
    6. 5.6 Variance Estimation
    7. 5.7 Small Area Estimation
    8. 5.8 Summary
    9. Acknowledgments
  14. Chapter 6: Understanding and Coping with Response Burden
    1. 6.1 A Cost Versus a Cost Benefit Approach
    2. 6.2 Measuring and Monitoring Business Response Burden
    3. 6.3 An Analytical Approach to Response Burden
    4. 6.4 Measures to Reduce Response Burden
    5. Acknowledgments
  15. Chapter 7: Methods for the Development, Testing, and Evaluation of Data Collection Instruments
    1. 7.1 A Framework for Questionnaire Development, Testing, and Evaluation
    2. 7.2 Developing Content, Measurements, and Survey Questions
    3. 7.3 Testing Questions and Questionnaires
    4. 7.4 Evaluating Survey Questions and Questionnaires
    5. 7.5 Development, Testing, and Evaluation of Electronic Data Collection Instruments
    6. 7.6 Analyzing Qualitative Data
    7. 7.7 Multimethod Approaches to Development, Testing, and Evaluation
    8. 7.8 Organization and Logistics
    9. 7.9 Summary
    10. Acknowledgments
    11. Appendix
  16. Chapter 8: Questionnaire Communication in Business Surveys
    1. 8.1 Communication Modes
    2. 8.2 Elements in Concert
    3. 8.3 Tailoring for Businesses
    4. 8.4 Phrasing Questions in Business Surveys
    5. 8.5 Minimizing Response Burden
    6. 8.6 Concluding Reflections
    7. Acknowledgments
  17. Chapter 9: Business Survey Communication
    1. 9.1 Introduction
    2. 9.2 The role, Objectives, and Process of Business Survey Communication
    3. 9.3 Tailoring to The Business Context
    4. 9.4 The Survey Organization Context
    5. 9.5 Designing An Effective Business Survey Communication Strategy
    6. 9.6 Business Survey Communication Measures, Practices, and Guidelines
    7. 9.7 Summary and Example of a Communication Strategy
    8. Acknowledgment
  18. Chapter 10: Managing the Data Collection
    1. 10.1 Introduction
    2. 10.2 Implementing the Survey
    3. 10.3 Active Fieldwork Management
    4. 10.4 Paradata
    5. 10.5 Monitoring the Quality of the Response
    6. 10.6 Monitoring the Survey Production Process
    7. 10.7 Survey Evaluation and Quality Report
    8. 10.8 Summary
    9. Acknowledgment
  19. Chapter 11: Capturing, Coding, and Cleaning Survey Data
    1. 11.1 Introduction
    2. 11.2 Data Capture
    3. 11.3 Data Coding
    4. 11.4 Editing and Imputation
    5. 11.5 Concluding Comments
    6. Acknowledgments
  20. Chapter 12: From Survey Data to Statistics
    1. 12.1 Introduction
    2. 12.2 Analysis
    3. 12.3 Preparing for Dissemination
    4. 12.4 Dissemination
    5. 12.5 Archiving
    6. 12.6 Concluding Comments
    7. Acknowledgments
  21. References
  22. Index
  23. Wiley Series in Survey Methodology

Product information

  • Title: Designing and Conducting Business Surveys
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: August 2013
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780470903049