The Impacts of Respondents' Perceived Privacy and Time Risks on the Web Surveys Reply Intention

• Activity Number: 349
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 2, 2011 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Yi-Hua Lai*+ and Hsin-Ying Chin and Hsien-Yuan Hsu
• Companies: National Taiwan Normal University and National Taiwan Normal University and National Taiwan Normal University
• Keywords: perceived risk theory ; response rate ; web surveys

Abstract

Perceived Risk Theory (PRT) has been widely applied to predict consumers' online purchase intention. This study employed PRT to explain low response rates confronting by Web surveys. The Questionnaire of Web Survey Perceived Risk (QWSPR) comprised of 9 items was utilized to measure 620 college students' perceived privacy risk and time risk. Privacy risk was defined as "potential loss of control over personal information or the responses of Web surveys" (measured by 4 items), while time risk was defined as "potential loss of time when replying a Web survey or spending more time on follow-up Web surveys after finishing the current one" (measured by 5 items). In addition, students were asked to evaluate their reply intention if they received an academic Web survey via email. Student characteristics were also collected. After controlling for students' gender, age, parents' education, family income, and major, results showed as time risk perceived by students increased, Web survey reply intention decreased. However, no effect was found for perceived privacy risk on reply intention. Future study is needed to investigate how to decrease respondents' perceived time risk of Web surveys.