NORTH- HOLLAND Facsimile Transmi, ssion versus Mail Delivery of Self-Administered Questionnaires in Industrial Surveys Israel D. Nebenzahl Eugene D. Jaffe The authors investigate whether the use offacsimile transmis- INTRODUCTION sion of questionnaires to industrial populations can improve re- sponse as compared to mail surveys. The authors demonstrate As the cost of personal interviewing increases, especially in a two-phase empirical study that facsimile-transmitted ques- in industrial surveys, researchers have been turning to al- tionnaires generated similar response rates as did questionnaires ternative methods of data collection, such as mail and tel- delivered and returned by mail, but had significantly faster re- ephone interviewing. Traditionally, postal services have sponse and lower total cost. been utilized in sending the survey questionnaires to respon- dents and for their return to the research organization. In comparison with other survey methods, mail has a num- ber of cost and operational advantages. In conducting sur- Address correspondence to Israel D. Ncbenzahl, Deputy Director, School of veys across a wide geographical area, mail is considered BusinessAdministration, Bar-nan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel. the least expensive data collection method [1]. Among the Industrial Marketing Management 24, 167-175 (1995) © Elsevier Science Inc., 1995 0019-8501/95/$9.50 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010 SSDI 0019-8501(94)000-42-U