The effect of incentives in web surveys: application and ethical considerations

Although researchers use internet-based surveys more often than ever in their research, there is little research on the effect of incentives on response rate, speed and cost. This study attempts to fill in some of the blanks by comparing the different incentives offered to respondents of web-based surveys. The results indicate that offering a luggage tag to each respondent and including them in a draw for a bigger value prize (a personal digital assistant) yields the highest response rate. In terms of response speed, there are no significant differences among each incentive group. The most expensive group in terms of costs was the combination of luggage tag and prize draw.