An Exploratory Study of the Non-Participation to the Surveys in Online Access Panels: What are the Profiles of Non-Guarantors?

By definition, an access panel is a permanent sample of individuals recruited on the initiative of a market research firm and who volunteer to take part in ad hoc surveys, generally conducted by telephone, in face-to-face or online, etc. A fraction of the total panel can be easily sampled and questioned on a specific issue: thus resorting to an access panel makes it possible to have a pre-qualified and a pre-recruited population, easy to mobilize in a short time; moreover, the voluntary nature of the registration in addition to the incentive associated with the participation in the surveys ensure a higher rate of complete questionnaires than the one usually obtained in samples recruited for ad hoc purposes. The objective of the research is to explore the variables that are correlated with the total non-response and to measure the effectiveness of the methods used to increase the response rate in the case of an online B to C access panel. First of all we will present the determining factors and the consequences of the non-response in surveys by questionnaire. We will then specify the methodology of the research and present the exploratory results obtained.