Toward a Theoretical Framework for Mail Survey Response

A survey was employed as an exploratory, partial test of a theoretical framework for predicting/describing response to mail surveys. This framework suggests that in order for individuals to respond to a mail survey, they must have sufficient justification. Justification is defined as perceived benefits minus perceived costs. In order to provide a preliminary test of this framework, 10c incentives were employed as one factor from within the frameworks and follow-up was employed as one factor from outside the framework. The results indicate that a different segment of the population is induced to respond with dime incentives than is induced to respond with follow-up. The best response rate (86%) was produced by both including a dime and sending a follow-up questionnaire. However, the inclusion of a dime with no follow-up questionnaire had a response rate (70%) which compared very favorably -- but cost only half as much per sample member -- with the dime plus follow-up.