Abstract

The Survey Futures programme is a multi-institutional research programme in the UK that brings together experts from nine Universities, three major data collection organisations (NatCen, IPSOS and Verian), and the Office for National Statistics. Its overarching aim is to ensure that, despite rapid changes in the survey data collection landscape, it will still remain possible to collect high-quality social survey data in the UK.

At the beginning of my presentation, I will briefly introduce this research programme. I will then focus on one of the projects that investigates the knock-to-nudge approach as an additional effort in recruitment.

Knock-to-nudge (KtN) is an innovative method of household contact, first introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK when face-to-face interviewing was not possible. In this approach, interviewers visit households and encourage sampled units to participate in a survey through a remote survey mode (either web or telephone) at a later date. Interviewers also can collect contact information, such as telephone numbers or email addresses, or conduct within-household selection of individuals on the doorstep if required. This approach continued to be used post-pandemic in a number of surveys, but there remains a knowledge gap regarding its advantages and limitations. It is still unclear whether knock-to-nudge approach leads to improvements in sample composition and data quality.

We analysed data from three high-quality UK surveys: the National Readership Survey (PAMCo), the National Survey for Wales (NSW), and the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS), each of which employed different versions of the knock-to-nudge approach. Our aim was to determine whether this method improves survey participation and sample composition, and to assess how incorporating participants recruited via knock-to-nudge impacts on data quality and responses to substantive questions. We investigate these effects using descriptive analyses, statistical tests, and logistic regression models.

Our overall findings demonstrate that knock-to-nudge is associated with: (1) a significant increase in response rates, (2) improved sample composition, (3) higher item non-response, and (4) significant differences in responses to substantive survey questions. Additionally, we found that there are diminishing returns in improvements after the first KtN visit, suggesting that implementing only one visit may be sufficient.

This study contributes to the under-researched area of knock-to-nudge methods. The results indicate that, when carefully designed and implemented, this approach can enhance recruitment efforts and improve sample composition of the resulting samples in surveys. However, its viability as a universal solution for mixed-mode surveys depends on whether these methodological benefits outweigh the potential compromises in data quality and the additional implementation costs.