Andrew Bean and Michael J.

¶ … Andrew Bean and Michael J. Roszkowski examine the question of whether or not the length of a questionnaire used in conducting research has a direct response on the overall response rate. According to the experimental studies conducted by the authors, it is determined that questionnaire length can affect survey response rates significantly, particularly when "survey salience is high and questionnaire lengths differ greatly." Accordingly, with low salience and modest differences in questionnaire length, "the effects on response rate tend to be small and inconsistent." (Bean & Reszkowski: 1995)

Bean and Roszkowski's article also discusses the importance - and popularity of - phone and mail surveys in collecting marketing research information and the affect this has on results. In conclusion, the article takes its findings and offers variables that must be considered when attempting to predict questionnaire rates of response and how these variables will implicate the research's results. (Bean & Reszkowski: 1995)

What the authors mean by salient rate in a questionnaire is how important the topic of the questionnaire is to the responding party. Thus, according to the findings of Bean and Roszkowski, when the topic of a questionnaire is of low salience - or importance - to the subject, this lowers the overall expected rate of response. (Bean & Reszkowski: 1995)

However, as can be seen from the sample studies conducted by Bean and Roszkowski, when the issue of salience is removed and the only question is the effect of the questionnaire length on the overall response rate, understanding the effect becomes more difficult. The findings of the studies show that when salience is either particularly high or low, the actual length of the questionnaire has little to no effect on the overall rate of response. Thus, the best conclusion that can be drawn is that it is not the length of the questionnaire that affects the rate of response but the salience of the questionnaire. In other words, if the topic of the questionnaire is important to the responding party, it is more likely that they will take the time to respond to it - regardless of length. (Adams & Darwin: 2005)