Testing Gender Difference in Perceived Time Risk of the Web Surveys Using MIMIC Model

• 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): Hsin-Ying Chin*+ and Hsien-Yuan Hsu and Yi-Hua Lai
• Companies: National Taiwan Normal University and National Taiwan Normal University and National Taiwan Normal University
• Keywords: gender difference ; perceived risk theory ; response rate ; web surveys

Abstract

Perceived Risk Theory (PRT) has been applied to explain Web survey respondents' reply intention. Prior research found that respondents who perceived higher level of time risk of Web survey (i.e., potential loss of time when replying a Web survey or spending more time on follow-up Web surveys after finishing the current one) were less likely to reply to academic Web surveys. No study to date has investigated why respondents perceived different levels of time risk. The purpose of this study was to examine whether gender differentiates perceived the time risk of Web surveys. A subscale (4 items) of Questionnaire of Web Survey Perceived Risk (QWSPR) was utilized to measure 620 college students' time risk perception in a survey deployed in fall 2010. A multiple-indicator multiple-cause (MIMIC) model was used to assess the difference between male and female students' perceived time risk. Results indicated that female students perceived a higher level of time risk than male students. Our findings raised the issue of how to develop an effective strategy which could decrease female respondents' time risk perception in order to enhance the Web survey response rate.