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Should Research Firms Pay Respondents Should Research Firms Pay Respondents Companies often carry out research in order to obtain critical information from clients and customers concerning the quality of their services or goods. These companies rely on marketing research firms to carry out qualitative research through surveys in order to solicit information from the customers. However, surveys are often tedious, and time consuming for the customers and clients, leading to limited responses. The marketing research firms face the compulsion of turning to the use of incentives in order to encourage the public to participate in such surveys. Some of the incentives considered are often monetary. This paper will consider whether awarding respondents with monetary incentives is ethical.
Marketing research firms use monetary incentives as one of the strategies that serve to increase responses from the public so that they can attain an appropriate sample size (Gitman, & McDaniel, 2009). Most of the marketing firms seem to approve the use of monetary incentives because of the potential they present in persuading customers to participate in surveys. However, there is urgency to address the consequences of using monetary incentives to persuade people to participate in surveys.
There is immense value in using monetary incentives because research firms get adequate responses from the public. The information solicited from the public is of crucial use in determining the perception of the target market’s concerning the goods and services they offer. Such understanding of the opinion of the target market is critical in making decisions in company (Kurtz, 2012). This explains why research firms will do anything to get adequate representation of the target market in the surveys. Monetary incentives increased the number of participants and quality of responses.
However, there are numerous ethical issues surrounding the use of monetary incentives to motivate the public to participate in their surveys (Zikmund, &Babin, 2007). In some cases, offering respondents incentives reflects an act of bribing the respondents into participation, compelling them to take part. The information gathered may exhibit bias. Moreover, many marketing research firms may be mistaken for scams that are common on many online sites affecting the integrity of the company.
References
Gitman, L. J., & McDaniel, C. D. (2009). The future of business: The essentials. Mason, OH: South-Western Cenage Learning.
Kurtz, D. L. (2012). Boone & Kurtz contemporary marketing / David L. Kurtz. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Zikmund, W. G., &Babin, B. J. (2007). Exploring marketing research. Mason, Ohio: Thomson South-Western.