Understanding Participant Preferences: Insights from Device Usage in Research

MRS and three international research businesses explore the motivations of participants to take part in research and the other activities which compete with research for participant time.

This project is part of MRS’ contribution to the wider Global Data Quality initiative and MRS Campaign for Better Data.

In a collaborative effort, which includes analysis of international response data from 2016 to 2024 from Kantar, Cint and Toluna, to identify and assess review patterns between mobile and non-mobile measurements.

The project is international in scope and includes response data from 13 markets: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, the UK and the US.

A separate participant topical survey has also been undertaken to identify some of the underlying causes behind the trend data. This survey explores participant motivations for completing surveys, identifies the activities which research is competing against for participant attention, and assesses the demographic differences for these issues. For the first time, this survey has been extended beyond the markets of the US, UK, and Australia into India, Brazil, and South Africa.

What you’ll learn:

• The key findings from nine years of data analysing the response and completion rates between mobiles and desktops.
• Preferred devices for undertaking surveys and the reasons behind these preferences.
• How participants like to spend their free time and what other activities are competing for their attention.
• Preferred platforms, apps, and websites that participants spend time on, and whether these are more rewarding than surveys.
• Preferred times of day for undertaking surveys between demographic groups and what surveys need to stimulate participant interest.
• Recommendations from participants to retain interest in participating in future surveys.
• The conclusions from the research and why these should encourage commissioners/buyers of research to address the longer-term issues surrounding questionnaire design including mobile optimisation and survey satisfaction.

Speakers:

Chair: Debrah Harding, Managing Director, MRS

Panellists:

Natasha Gay, Senior Research Manager, Customer Insights, Cint
Marie Hense, Global Head of Quality, Toluna
Marina Joshi, Quantitative Methods Director, Kantar