The use of incentives to affect response rates for a mail survey of U.S. marina decision makers

The use of researcher controlled, nonmonetary, postpayment incentives on response rates used in a nationwide mail survey of decision-makers at U.S. marinas in the spring of 2000 was investigated. The incentives resulted in an overall increase in response rate over control conditions of 33 percent. The response rates within the first 3 weeks of the administration of the survey indicated a larger earlier response based on cumulative percents for the group receiving the incentives versus the control group.