Paper Surveys for Research—They Still Work in the Digital Era
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Helping businesses transition to new ownership is an urgent challenge since older generations (baby boomers, et al) continue to own over 50 percent of businesses. Therefore, University of Minnesota Extension conducted research to explore business owner awareness, attitudes, aspirations, and action on transition planning. The team administered a paper survey in spring 2023, using a four-wave, U.S. mail methodology to target a scientific sample of small businesses. Nearly 300 valid responses were received, a 19.8 percent response rate. This response illustrates that an inviting, well-designed paper survey still works in the digital age. This is a valuable method for reaching people, especially those outside traditional Extension networks.
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10 pages. 1904 words.
This article describes a situation where we were reaching out to participants to whom we had no natural connection. So using a series of high quality First-Class Mail allowed us to get through to them in ways that email or other computer-mediated methods seemed less likely to do.
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University of Minnesota EDA Center
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Darger, Michael; Petel, Ashley. (2025). Paper Surveys for Research—They Still Work in the Digital Era. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/277700.
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