The Drop-off and Pick-up Method: An Approach to Reduce Nonresponse Bias in Natural Resource Surveys

By S. Allred, A. Ross-Davis. Small-scale Forestry, 2011

151 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Forestry researchers frequently conduct surveys to assess woodland owner attitudes, behavior, behavioral intentions, and program adoption. However, the ability to utilize survey results in applied research is dependent upon how accurately the sample respondents reflect the reference population. One major issue in survey research is nonresponse bias. Nonresponse bias occurs when individuals do not respond to a questionnaire and is a concern because of the potential inability to make accurate inferences to a population based on responses. Researchers in this study compare two methods of questionnaire distribution (Drop-off/Pick-up and the Tailored Design Method) in terms of cost effectiveness and response rate. When compared to the Tailored Design Method (TDM), use of the Drop-off/Pick-Up (DOPU) method resulted in significantly higher response rates, provided an alternative method by which to determine survey eligibility, and had significantly higher survey implementation costs. The DOPU technique is an effective means to reduce potential nonresponse bias through increased response rate. When implementing the DOPU method, face-to-face contact and verbal communication with respondents permitted researchers to better determine eligibility than did leaving the questionnaire on the doorknob. Relying solely on respondents to indicate ineligibility on the survey instrument was not as effective as verbal confirmation of eligibility in the DOPU.

Subfields: Ecology, Economics and Econometrics, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d0563aac958b994591049dccccdac81a603d2736

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Economics and Econometrics

1. Thurasamy Ramayah
2. Mirza Mohammad Didarul Alam
3. Syed Abidur Rahman
4. Seyedeh Khadijeh Taghizadeh
5. T. Heberlein

In Sociology and Political Science

1. S. Allred
2. Thurasamy Ramayah
3. Mirza Mohammad Didarul Alam
4. Syed Abidur Rahman
5. R. Stedman
6. Seyedeh Khadijeh Taghizadeh
7. T. Heberlein
8. R. Gifford

Citations in the corpus

• Technology acceptance among micro-entrepreneurs in marginalized social strata: The case of social innovation in Bangladesh (2017, background): “DOPU can also further reduce interviewer bias effect and allow the respondents to complete the questionnaire alone in their own time (Allred and Ross-Davis, 2011).”
• The End of the (Research) World As We Know It? Understanding and Coping With Declining Response Rates to Mail Surveys (2019, background): “The costs of transportation and labor can render DOPU prohibitively expensive (Allred and Ross-Davis 2011). Trentelman et al. (2016) note that the method is typically best suited for local surveys (concentrated geographic areas) and is especially common in rural community surveys (Steele et al. 2001”
• Competencies for fresh graduates’ success at work: Perspectives of employers (2018, background): “The significantly high response rate was due to adopting the personal drop-off and pick-up method (Allred and Ross-Davis, 2011).”