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Abstract

Nonresponse bias is a major concern for scholars using survey research, as low response rates can lead to serious problems in the generalizability of survey results. Numerous studies have been made to estimate the effects of nonresponse bias on survey results, but these have typically considered only surveys treating individual respondents as the unit of analysis. Organizational theory should lead scholars, however, to expect important differences between individual and organizational survey designs in the sources and effects of nonresponse bias. In this article, the author compares characteristics of organizations responding to a survey of organizations working for peace with those of organizations that failed to respond. The analysis shows that organizational informants behave differently from individual survey targets and that a theory of nonresponse bias in organizational surveys is needed to improve organizational survey designs so as to minimize and account for nonresponse bias.

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Nonresponse Bias in Organizational Surveys: Evidence from a Survey of Groups and Organizations Working for Peace

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