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

Abstract

Despite a growth in the number of India-focused articles appearing in leading business journals, there has not been an attempt to conduct systematic reviews of response rate in surveys conducted in India. India differs significantly from Western nations not only in its cultural norms but also in its practical difficulties of doing empirical research with the expectation that response rates are likely to be lower. This study examines the response rate for surveys undertaken in organizational and behavioural research with respondents based in India. We analyzed more than 2000 studies published in the years 2005 and 2010 in 26 refereed academic journals, and we identified 77 studies that utilized surveys in Indian context. Not all studies reported the response rate and only 46 of these had them reported. We examined the response rates in these 46 studies which covered more than 1000 organizational level respondents and 18500 individual respondents. The average response rate for studies that utilized data collected from individuals was 64.62 with a standard deviation of 22.1, while the average response rate for studies that utilized data collected from organizations was 13.31 with a standard deviation of 6.19. There were few similarities to 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 RR is also significantly different for organization level as compared to individual level respondents. As contrasted to Western context however few differences were observed. The average response rate for an organizational level survey is significantly lesser while for individual level respondent groups it is significantly higher than the average figures reported in Western context. There are 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.