Date of Award

1983

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Marketing (Business Administration)

Abstract

Over the years, survey researchers have devoted significant effort toward conceptualizing and empirically investigating all facets of the survey research process. Recently, the mall intercept method of data collection has emerged as one of the most popular methods among market researchers. However, little progress has been made in the way of assessing the mall intercept method. Consequently, either data has been collected in these central locations without knowledge of its quality or market researchers have stayed away from this method entirely because of the possible biases associated with a nonprobability sample. Based on this scenario, this empirical investigation is an attempt to provide much needed insights into the mall intercept method of data collection. More specifically, the dissertation assesses the mall intercept by comparing it with the telephone method in the following five major areas: (1) demographic characteristics of its respondents; (2) lifestyle characteristics of its respondents; (3) shopping behavior of its respondents; (4) the nonresponse rate; and (5) response quality. The dissertation addresses these major areas in two phases. That is, the more general questions concerning demographics, lifestyles, shopping behavior and the nonresponse rate will be investigated separately in the first phase of data collection. The more specific questions dealing with response quality will be addressed in the second phase of data collection. Based on the dissertation's findings, it can be concluded that the mall intercept serves as a viable alternative for data collection to market researchers. Not only are respondents from this convenient sample similar in demographics and lifestyles to respondents selected via a more probability-oriented method, but they also yield quality data with lower refusal rates. However, due to the exploratory nature of the study the findings should not be generalized across all situations. Further research is needed in different shopping centers and in different cities for better generalizability.

Pages

178

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.3835

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