Large-scale Telephone Survey Research Articles

An Unhelpful Chain: Antecedents and Consequences of COVID-19 News Avoidance in China and Singapore

ABSTRACT This study used large-scale telephone surveys in China and Singapore in 2022 to examine the antecedents and outcomes of news avoidance amid the COVID-19 “infodemic.” The findings suggested a sequential process: Exposure to COVID-19 misinformation was related to information overload and subsequent news avoidance, which in turn was a correlate of skepticism toward vaccines. Moreover, the government’ pandemic-control policies conditioned the process. Under the “living with COVID” policy, Singaporean respondents exhibited greater exposure to misinformation and showed more pronounced vaccine distrust. In contrast, feeling overloaded, Chinese respondents under “zero-COVID” policy were more likely to avoid news about the pandemic.

The association between the interviewers’ and the respondents’ political attitudes in a telephone survey

ABSTRACT Interviewer effects in telephone surveys on political topics are likely to occur. The literature has yielded considerable evidence about the impact of basic interviewer characteristics, but research is lacking on how interviewers’ beliefs may shape responses. This study is aimed at assessing the association between the interviewers’ party affiliation and political ideology and the answers provided to the same questions by the respondents, using a large-scale telephone survey conducted in Hungary. The results show that interviewers account for a relatively large amount of variance, especially in the models predicting item-nonresponse. The interviewer’s reluctance to answer these questions strongly predicted missing data on the respondent level. On the other hand, only weak interviewer effects were found regarding the valid, substantive responses. The results demonstrate how, for instance, estimations of nonrespondents’ party preferences in electoral polls may be biased due to interviewer-related errors, and highlight the need for standardized persuasion strategies.

Understanding the antecedents of privacy fatigue in facial recognition-based m-Gov services: An empirical study from China

Facial recognition technology has been adopted for the better delivery of m-government services, but the ease and frequency with which users' personal information is being accessed and misused have inevitably increased. This has recently triggered a new phenomenon of privacy fatigue in e-governance, which makes people feel powerless to protect their privacy. A comprehensive understanding of users' privacy fatigue is important, since negative user perceptions may lead to disengagement and the distrust of the government. Drawing on the Person-Environment fit theory and user agency perspective, this study examines the antecedents of privacy fatigue, manifested as emotional exhaustion and cynicism. A large-scale telephone survey allowed data to be collected from 3, 436 users of facial recognition-based m-Gov services in China. The Partial Least Squares (PLS) results reveal that: (1) privacy fatigue indeed occurs among the users of facial recognition-based m-Gov services in China; (2) the perceptions of privacy control is the core antecedent of users' privacy fatigue, which influences two dimension—emotional exhaustion and cynicism—in different directions; (3) the effectiveness of both privacy self-efficacy and government legislation positively influences perceived privacy control, while the effect of the effectiveness of privacy policies on it is insignificant. This study contributes to the research by empirically testing the notion and antecedents of privacy fatigue in the context of facial recognition-based m-Gov services, and provides a mechanism analysis with an overarching theoretical framework. In addition, the findings may generate new research avenues related to privacy fatigue under an AI-enabled government.

Perceived competence, threat severity and response efficacy: key drivers of intention for area wide management

Area wide management (AWM) is a coordinated strategy designed to achieve effective and longer-lasting suppression of mobile insect pests, involving groups of commercial growers working together and/or with local communities to achieve control across multiple host areas. In this study, we hypothesised that intentions to carry out AWM for the control of fruit fly would be predicted by subjective knowledge of insect pests, along with protection motivation factors (perceived pest threat severity, threat vulnerability, self-efficacy, AWM response efficacy and response costs). Fruit and vegetable growers (n = 131) and general public (n = 896) living in fruit-growing regions completed a large-scale telephone survey, measuring perceptions and intentions to implement area wide management. Regression analyses tested the relationship between intention, protection motivation factors and subjective knowledge, F(8, 1018) = 48.52, p < .001, yielding a statistically significant predictive model accounting for approximately 30% of behavioural variance in intention. Self-efficacy, threat severity, response efficacy and threat vulnerability were the most influential predictors of intention. Subjective knowledge was not a strong predictor, but results did clarify that explicit knowledge of fruit fly controls, rather than tacit knowledge of fruit fly itself, was a significant predictor of intention. Understanding motivational drivers for farmer and community engagement in pest management can not only help predict uptake of novel practices, but also allude to how individual farmers and communities are articulating a pest problem. The importance of explanatory factors such as threat appraisal and self-efficacy in framing management activities can help to better target behavioural incentives.

Exploring the relationship between government budget information and citizens’ perceptions of public service performance in China

ABSTRACTThis study examines how government budget information affects citizen’s satisfaction with the budgeting process, their trust in government, and their perceptions of public service performance. Using data collected from two waves of large-scale telephone surveys in Guangzhou, China, we found that budget information was negatively associated with budget satisfaction, but positively related to perceived public service performance through increased citizen trust. These findings provide empirical evidence for understanding the complex relationship between budget information and citizens’ perceptions of government performance, and suggest useful strategies for government to enhance citizens’ trust and improve communications with citizens.

Combining Telephone Surveys and Fishing Catches Self-Report: The French Sea Bass Recreational Fishery Assessment

Fisheries statistics are known to be underestimated, since they are mainly based on information about commercial fisheries. However, various types of fishing activities exist and evaluating them is necessary for implementing effective management plans. This paper assesses the characteristics and catches of the French European sea bass recreational fishery along the Atlantic coasts, through the combination of large-scale telephone surveys and fishing diaries study. Our results demonstrated that half of the total catches (mainly small fish) were released at sea and that the mean length of a kept sea bass was 46.6 cm. We highlighted different patterns of fishing methods and type of gear used. Catches from boats were greater than from the shore, both in abundance and biomass, considering mean values per fishing trip as well as CPUE. Spearfishers caught the highest biomass of sea bass per fishing trip, but the fishing rod with lure was the most effective type of gear in terms of CPUE. Longlines had the highest CPUE value in abundance but not in biomass: they caught numerous but small sea bass. Handlines were less effective, catching few sea bass in both abundance and biomass. We estimated that the annual total recreational sea bass catches was 3,173 tonnes of which 2,345 tonnes were kept. Since the annual commercial catches landings were evaluated at 5,160 tonnes, recreational landings represent 30% of the total fishing catches on the Atlantic coasts of France. Using fishers' self-reports was a valuable way to obtain new information on data-poor fisheries. Our results underline the importance of evaluating recreational fishing as a part of the total amount of fisheries catches. More studies are critically needed to assess overall fish resources caught in order to develop effective fishery management tools.

Worker perceptions of representation and rights in Germany and the USA

Germany and the USA have very different systems of legal representation and rights at work, but these differences and their effects may have lessened. We draw on a large-scale telephone survey to explore worker perceptions of these systems, and find that perceptions of German workers are more favourable than those of their US counterparts, but not by as much as might be expected. Our findings could in part be explained by cross-national differences in both worker ideologies and the way the different systems function, but they also point to the importance of perceptions in understanding and assessing cross-national institutional differences, and have implications for the future of workplace representation and rights in both nations.

Estimation bias of different design and analytical strategies in dual-frame telephone surveys: an empirical evaluation

Dual-frame survey designs have become increasingly popular in large-scale telephone surveys. This is due to the lack of coverage of the traditional landline survey design and the escalating use of cell phones in recent years. Several estimation strategies have been proposed and their properties have been discussed under ideal scenarios, including pseudo-maximum-likelihood estimation, single-frame estimation, and simple composite estimation [C.J. Skinner and J.N.K. Rao, Estimation in dual frame surveys with complex designs, J. Am. Statist. Assoc. 91 (1996), pp. 349–356; S.L. Lohr and J.N.K. Rao, Inference from dual frame surveys, J. Am. Statist. Assoc. 95 (2000), pp. 271–280]. In practice, estimation in dual-frame telephone surveys is vulnerable to biases and errors (e.g. inaccessibility, topic/mode salience, and measurement error). The investigation of the performance of popular dual-frame estimation methods is scarce in real and less ideal scenarios. Through an innovatively designed simulation study, we compare the estimation bias under different sampling designs with various estimation strategies. To reduce bias, different raking strategies are compared. Simulated scenarios incorporating sampling costs are examined for practical considerations. Overall, the cell phone-only design yields results with the least bias and variance. When accurate covariate information is available for post-stratification, raking estimates from the cell phone-any design also perform very well. We also provide SAS macros for this simulation evaluation upon request. Survey practitioners can fine-tune the parameters based on their prior knowledge of the target population and run the simulation under different scenarios to gain more insights into how to optimally design and analyse telephone surveys.

Prevalence of Chronic Pain Among Libyan Adults in Derna City: A Pilot Study to Assess the Reliability, Linguistic Validity, and Feasibility of Using an Arabic Version of the Structured Telephone Interviews Questionnaire on Chronic Pain

There are few studies estimating the prevalence of chronic pain in countries from the Middle East. We translated the Structured Telephone Interviews Questionnaire on Chronic Pain from English into Arabic and assessed its reliability and linguistic validity before using it in a telephone survey in Libya to gather preliminary prevalence data for chronic pain. Intraclass correlations for scaled items were high, and there were no differences in answers to nominal items between the first and second completions of the questionnaire. One hundred and 4 individuals participated in a telephone survey. The prevalence of chronic pain was 25.0% (95% CI, 16.7% to 33.3%) and 50.0% (95% CI: 30.8% to 69.2) of the participants with chronic pain scored ≥12 on the Arabic S-LANSS. Mean±SD duration of pain was 2.8±1.2years, and pain was more frequent in women (P=0.02). 53.8% of participants had taken prescription medication for their pain, and 76.9% had used nondrug methods of treatment including traditional Libyan methods such as Kamara, a local herbal concoction. Eighty percent believed that their doctor would rather treat their illness than their pain, and 35% reported that their doctor did not think that their pain was a problem. Some participants complained that the questionnaire was too long with a mean±SD call duration of 20±5.4minutes. We conclude that the Arabic Structured Telephone Interviews Questionnaire on Chronic Pain was reliable and linguistically valid and could be used in a large-scale telephone survey on the Libyan population. Our preliminary estimate of prevalence should be considered with caution because of the small sample size.

Estimating the size of the Chinese outbound travel market: A demand-side approach

The Chinese outbound travel market has been one of the fastest-growing international markets over the past decade. However, estimating the size and identifying key tourist-generating areas for the Chinese travel market remain a significant challenge for international marketers. This empirical study employs an incidental target-market approach and presents updated research findings concerning this burgeoning market. Primary and secondary tourist-generating cities of Mainland China were identified based on population size and level of socioeconomic development, and their market potential for outbound travel was assessed through a large-scale telephone survey. This study estimated that the current Chinese outbound travel market comprises approximately 22 million city residents, among whom 11.5 million have traveled or plan to travel to destinations outside Asia. In addition to estimating market size and making recommendations on target cities, the study also introduces an effective research design for identifying target markets and customers.

RACE-BASED CONSIDERATIONS AND THE OBAMA VOTE

AbstractIn the 2008 presidential primaries, Barack Obama seemed to have a problem connecting with Asian American voters, as he lost heavily to Hillary Clinton in states such as California and New Jersey. Many speculated that race-based considerations played a significant role in Asian Americans' overwhelming support for Clinton over Obama, with conjectures built on a limited set of aggregate exit poll data from three states. Race may also have accounted for the high proportion of Asian Americans who in polls said they were undecided heading into the November election. In this article, we analyze the importance of race-based considerations in the Asian American vote, after controlling for other factors such as partisanship, issue preferences, age, and gender. We rely on the National Asian American Survey, a large-scale telephone survey of Asian American voters conducted mostly in the fall of 2008, with interviews in eight languages and with sizable numbers of respondents from the six largest national-origin groups. We find that race-based considerations do indeed help explain the Asian American vote in 2008. Respondents who failed to see political commonality between Asian Americans and Blacks were less likely to vote for Obama in the primary, although other factors, such as age and gender, played a more significant role. Finally, the role of race-based considerations paled in comparison to party identification and issue preferences in the general election, suggesting that election contexts can play an important role in shaping whether or not race is relevant to vote choice.

Intrinsic or Extrinsic? Determinants Affecting Donation Behaviors

Giving to charities comes in two major forms: time and money. This study explores whether donors/nondonors and volunteers/nonvolunteers can be uncovered in the Taiwanese context using demographic, socio-economic, psychographic, and attitudinal variables suggested by the interdisciplinary literature. Data were collected by a large-scale telephone survey examining the statistical significance of the aforementioned variables of individual differences. The overall results suggest that variables affecting volunteering are intrinsic determinants including psychographic- or attitudinal-based factors. The results indicate that monetary donations are likely to be determined by extrinsic variables such as age, gender, income, marital status, and family loading. The canonical correlation analysis suggests that volunteering is not a replacement for giving monetary donations, but rather it is complementary to the donation of money. The findings shed light on the nature and characteristics of donors giving time and money in order to offer new insights for practitioners in charity marketing and fund raising.

WHO GIVES WHAT TO CHARITY? CHARACTERISTICS AFFECTING DONATION BEHAVIOR

Giving to charities takes two major forms: time and money. In this study the authors explored whether donors/nondonors can be distinguished using demographic, socioeconomic, and psychographic variables suggested by literature across disciplines. Data were collected through a large-scale telephone survey in Taiwan. The results indicate that determinants affecting volunteering are mostly intrinsic while those for monetary donations are mostly extrinsic. Additionally, educational attainment and income are useful to explain and predict monetary donation amounts. Major differences between our results and previous findings in Western countries are drawn and fund-raising strategies discussed.

A public health perspective on "The ethics of asking and not asking about abuse."

Comments on the article by K. Becker-Blease and J. Freyd, which provides a thought-provoking and important perspective regarding the ethics of researchers asking or not asking adults about abuse they experienced as children. Many of these authors' concerns with research on abuse during childhood apply equally to abuse and violence experienced at all life stages. Focusing on intimate partner violence (IPV), we wish to amplify upon and respond to their observations from the perspective of public health scientists involved in large-scale telephone survey research on violence (including family violence, IPV, sexual violence, and suicide). We strongly agree with Becker-Blease and Freyd that decisions not to ask about abuse play directly into the social forces that perpetuate IPV and other forms of violence as pervasive and pernicious social and public health problems. From a public health perspective, the question is not whether to ask but how to ask about participants' experiences with violence and abuse. Language: en

Measurement of online visibility and its impact on Internet traffic

The Internet landscape is an increasingly crowded space where hundreds of thousands of companies are fighting for attention. Some of these companies are universally known (Yahoo!, Amazon) while others are more obscure (Literary Guild, Just Say Wow). Regardless of their level of Internet presence, all these companies are interested in improving their position, particularly now that managers are asked to justify their online activities. To help managers assess their online presence, and give them a way to compare their position relative to their competitors, this article aims to develop a measure of a company's online visibility. Moreover, this study seeks to understand what factors drive online visibility, and how. The visibility measure we develop captures the extent to which a user is likely to come across an online reference to a company's Web site. It is based on data collected from multiple sources that include search engine results, Web-site contents, and online directory listings. It is calibrated using a large-scale telephone survey, and is validated using data obtained from Web crawlers and Internet consumer-panel sources. In the latter part of the article, we show how managers can use the visibility measure to compare the online presence of their company to their competitors’. We also show how they can use this information to perform scenario analysis aimed at finding the best way to improve their online position.

Causal Attributions and the Significance of Self-Efficacy in Predicting Solutions to Poverty

Attributions about the causes of poverty in America and perceptions concerning viable solutions to poverty in America should be related. People who believe that the causes of poverty lie within the individual (i.e., make an internal attribution) should be supportive of the individual taking responsibility for his or her economic situation as the solution to poverty. In contrast, people who believe that the causes of poverty lie outside the control of the individual (i.e., make an external attribution) should perceive governmental assistance programs as a viable solution to poverty. In addition, it is possible that an individual's level of self-efficacy moderates the relationship between attributions as to the causes of poverty and proposals about solutions to poverty. Data used for this investigation were obtained from the Great Lakes Poll, a large-scale telephone survey of residents in the Midwest of the United States and the province of Ontario, Canada. Statistical analysis of the data via OLS regression found no support for the idea that self-efficacy serves as a moderator. However, support was found for the belief that an individual's attributions towards the causes of poverty are consistent with that person's proposed solutions to poverty. Thus, internal attributions towards causation of poverty predict individual solutions to poverty; conversely, external attributions towards causation predict external solutions for poverty.

From Luxury to Utility: A Longitudinal Analysis of Cell Phone Laggards

Who remains a cell phone have-not as the cell phone evolves from luxury to utility? This study, based on large-scale telephone surveys in Hong Kong in 1998 and 2000, pursues a longitudinal analysis of the socioeconomic characteristics of the diminishing ranks of non-adopters and assesses the consequence of non-adoption. Over the period, the divide shrank, but the dividing lines along socioeconomic status are still significant. Though the have-nots perceived the cell phone's technical attributes in a better light, socioeconomic status and social influences continued to dominate in the adoption process. Further, cell phone have-nots appeared less knowledgeable about information technologies, providing fresh empirical support for the knowledge gap hypothesis.

Effects of Introductions in Large-Scale Telephone Survey Interviews

In this article, the effect of four different introductions on response rates in large-scale telephone surveys in the Netherlands in investigated. Three standardized scripted introductions with different numbers of content elements, in addition to a fourth agendabased introduction, were distinguished. In the latter, the interviewers formulated their own introductions on the basis of a limited number of catchwords. A total of 1,831 first telephone calls by 132 interviewers were analyzed; only first calls were taken into account. In a multilevel model, the three standardized scripted introductions did not differ much with respect to response rates, appointment rates, or refusal rates. However, the agenda-based introduction induced both higher response rates and higher appointment rates and, therefore, lower refusal rates.

The School to Work Transition of Second Generation Immigrants in Metropolitan New York: Some Preliminary Findings

We believe the time has come to undertake a detailed study of the school experience, labor market outcomes, and social incorporation of the leading edge of the second generation as it enters adulthood. Specifically, we are now in the early stages of study which will include a) a large scale telephone survey; b) in-depth, open-ended, in-person follow-up interview with a sub-sample of survey respondents; and c) strategically positioned ethnographies.

It's a small world:managing human resources in small businesses

It has become widely acknowledged that, during the past decade or so, large mainstream companies in the UK have adopted a new agenda for managing people. Relatively little is known about the impact of this new agenda on small businesses. The small business sector has been long regarded as the natural home for ‘bleak house’ employment relations practices typified by direct management control, poor terms and conditions, high staff turnover and little training. In March 1993, however, a large survey of 560 companies in Leicestershire revealed a surprisingly high take-up and awareness of new management ideas among small business managers. These findings are at odds with a crude ‘bleak house’ scenario. This large-scale telephone survey was then followed up with detailed case study research. This article presents and reflects upon the evidence and reformulates ideas about people management in small businesses.