Emerging issues for Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) business questionnaire design
by
Rob Burnside
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Coauthors: Emma Farrell (Australian Bureau of Statistics)

We discuss a number of disparate trends and influences that are impacting on the development and design of instruments for collection of data from businesses.

These include the opportunities and (statistical) risks offered by technology via multi-modal data collection, including Web-based and other electronic forms, administrative and computer system by-product files, voice recognition, and telephone interviewing. The appropriate collection mode(s) for particular types of data are a focus of particular interest.

Another area of influence is demand for a wider view of the activity of businesses that combines economic measures with, for instance, educational, demographic, environmental and information technology data. This forces economic statisticians to become involved in instrument development issues more familiar to social or household surveys. These include using appropriate techniques for developing, testing and verifying the accurate collection of subjective concepts that are easily misinterpreted, and the impact on accuracy related to recall, sensitivity and saliency.

These factors can result in more complex instrument structures, including presenting more instructions and definitions, navigation, layout and sequencing difficulties, and accommodating sparse data. Together these pressures put even more emphasis on understanding response rates and item non-response.

Date received: April 5, 2002