Cross-national industrial mail surveys - Why do response rates differ between countries?

This article describes the results of a cross-national industrial mail survey in 22 countries. Response rates are shown to vary considerably across countries, and several explanations for these differences in response rates are put forward and tested. Our results show that, when compared with nonrespondents, respondents are geographically and culturally closer to the Netherlands (the country from which the questionnaires were sent), are more internationally oriented, work in smaller subsidiaries and in companies not listed on the Global Fortune 500, and come from countries with a lower level of power distance. In addition, there is some indication that English language capacity might be a factor influencing response rates as well. Based on these results, various recommendations for improving response rates in cross-national mail surveys are put forward.