Global Investment Competitiveness Survey 2019

The World Bank Group commissioned an international survey firm, Kantar Public, to conduct 30-minute phone interviews with tar¬get respondents. The interviews were conducted by enumerators, and response data were entered in a computer system, a setup commonly referred to as computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATIs). The interviews were conducted in nine languages: Bahasa Indonesia, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese. In addition to the main survey questions, each inter¬view included a screener phase to ensure the eligibility of respondents. The inter¬views were conducted between June and November 2019.

The survey was piloted in all 10 countries to test the survey instrument in various lan¬guages and to identify effective strategies to increase response rates. The lessons from the pilot phase were used to reduce administra¬tion time and enhance overall clarity of the survey instrument.
The overall response rate for the survey was 9.3 percent. This response rate is consis¬tent with the current expected range for phone-based business surveys. The main fieldwork of the survey leveraged lessons from empirical research in survey design and administration to implement the strategies described below to ensure high response rates.

Potential respondents were notified by email before the survey. Building on research evidence, a prenotification email with World Bank Group and International Finance Corporation (IFC) branding was sent to poten¬tial respondents to signal that the survey would contribute to important global policy research. The prenotification emails also directed poten¬tial respondents to an informational website (www.investorsurvey.net) to obtain additional information about the survey, including a (view-only) copy of the survey questionnaire. These measures aimed to lower information barriers and enhance trust between respon¬dents and interviewers, thereby improving the likelihood of securing an interview with senior executives.

An easy-to-follow survey questionnaire was administered by well-trained profes¬sional CATI enumerators. The survey questionnaire, in the country’s primary busi¬ness language, was used to ensure than it could be completed within a reasonable time frame. The online read-only version of the questionnaire was available to be consulted during the interview. The fieldwork manag¬ers and CATI enumerators were screened to ensure experience in conducting business and market research, and they underwent specific interviewer training to prepare for this survey. A questionnaire manual with detailed explanations of the questionnaire also served as a reference source while the survey was being administered.

Survey administration arrangements prior¬itized respondents and constraints on the time of senior executives. Sensitive to variability in typical business hours and local norms around time use, CATI enumerators attempted to establish contact and schedule interviews during conducive time periods. Survey administration arrangements such as timing of calls, language options, repeat follow-up attempts, and scheduled callbacks were implemented to maximize the likelihood of obtaining responses from the contacted sample. In case of initial failure to reach the intended respondent, 5–10 follow-up call attempts were made.

As a token of appreciation, respondents were promised a set of nonmonetary incen¬tives. A key constraint to survey participation is the opportunity cost of time. Business surveys impose a net cost on respondents, requiring executives to apportion productive time away from work. Research largely supports the use of incentives as an effective means to increase response rates. To encourage potential respondents to “invest” time in the survey, interviewers (a) emphasized the important policy research that the survey will inform; (b) promised to send respondents a copy of the final research report; (c) promised to send respondents a cer¬tificate of appreciation; and (d) noted that a charitable donation would be made to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) when the target number of surveys was reached.