This book provides guidelines that will help the reader make educated trade-off decisions that minimize survey errors, costs, and response burden, while being attentive to survey data quality. Major topics include:
- Determining the survey content, considering user needs, the business context, and total survey quality
- Planning the survey as a project
- Sampling frames, procedures, and methods
- Questionnaire design and testing for self-administered paper, web, and mixed-mode surveys
- Survey communication design to obtain responses and facilitate the business response process
- Conducting and managing the survey using paradata and project management tools
- Data processing, including capture, editing, and imputation, and dissemination of statistical outputs
Designing and Conducting Business Surveys is an indispensable resource for anyone involved in designing and/or conducting business or organizational surveys at statistical institutes, central banks, survey organizations, etc.; producing statistics or other research results from business surveys at universities, research organizations, etc.; or using data produced from business surveys. The book also lays a foundation for new areas of research in business surveys.