Advances in Business Statistics, Methods and Data Collection

17Advances in Question(naire) Development, Pretesting, and Evaluation*

Diane K. Willimack¹, Heather Ridolfo², Amy Anderson Riemer¹, Melissa Cidade¹, and Kathy Ott³

¹U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC, USA

²U.S. Energy Information Administration, Washington, DC, USA

³USDA/National Agricultural Statistics Service, Washington, DC, USA

17.1 Introduction

Since their introduction to establishment surveys at the First International Conference on Establishment Surveys (ICES) (Dippo et al. 1995), cognitive research methods have become widely accepted for questionnaire development and pretesting in surveys of businesses, organizations, and farms. Their application was further demonstrated at subsequent ICES's and associated special issues of the Journal of Official Statistics (2010, 2014, 2018). The adoption of these and other qualitative research methods has relied on effectively adapting household pretesting methodologies to the establishment survey environment (Willimack et al. 2004). As new, improved, or alternative pretesting methodologies have emerged over the past 25 years, establishment survey researchers have embraced their use as well, particularly as an evolving US and worldwide economy demands timely and relevant statistics on emerging topics to better inform decision‐making by economists and policy makers (Bavdaž et al. 2019; Foundations for Evidence‐Based Policymaking Act of 2018).

As new technologies and business models change how businesses produce or finance goods and ...