Information on employee commuting and on business travel was collected from senior management using a questionnaire incorporating several innovative features. The questionnaire, which was used in web-interactive as well as hardcopy format, sought information on current and expected levels of home-working and business travel in a range of scenarios, and on the respondent's perception of the impact of different factors on future levels of these activities. Also, to test the robustness of respondents' opinions, the impact on respondents' expectations of alternative versions of a briefing text, one being very positive and one very negative about the role of ICT, was evaluated. Analysis revealed differences in the responses obtained via the web and hardcopy versions of the questionnaire and showed that a number of factors which are often ignored or taken as constant would actually be very influential in the future levels of home-working and business travel. Respondents' opinions about home-working were found to be more robust than those relating to business travel but the speed and security of communications were widely thought to have much greater impact than costs or travel times on expected level of home working and business travel. Models of future expected levels of home-working, and more particularly of business travel, are shown to differ from those of current levels. These findings are discussed in some detail and their wider implications for the design of questionnaires are explored. For the covering abstract please see ITRD E135207.
Abstract