Are Embedded Survey Items the Solution to Low Web Survey Response Rates? An Investigation of the Interaction Between Embedded Survey Items and Time of Survey Administration.

Web surveys provide survey researchers an opportunity to survey and gather data in an inclusive manner and from a global audience. However, Web surveys typically suffer from low response rates. To combat this issue, numerous studies have investigated how invitation messaging can improve responses. There is only one study, to our knowledge, that has studied the impact on response rates of embedding the first survey item in the email invitation message. Furthermore, no studies, to our knowledge, have investigated whether such an email invitation would augment the response rates during time periods that are less salient to the population under investigation. Our study tested a 2 (invitation message) x 6 (the day the invitation was sent) experimental design. The results show individuals who received the email invitation with the embedded survey item were more than two times more likely to start the survey and almost one-and-a-half times more likely to complete the survey than those who only received the traditional email invitation. Providing the embedded invitation improved response rates on test days more so than on days that were less salient to the respondents. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.