Survey Research for the Nation’s Top Universities and Other Clients

Providing textbook-quality social science research for more than 35 years

Responsive Management is a Virginia-based certified small business with more than 35 years of experience conducting social science research on a range of issues. Responsive Management specializes in all forms of survey research, including telephone, online, mail, and multimodal surveys; focus groups; in-depth interviews; needs assessments; program evaluations; and other forms of data collection. Our firm maintains an in-house, full-service survey center with 75 professional telephone interviewers who have been trained according to the standards established by the American Association for Public Opinion Research.

Examples of Responsive Management’s University Clients

  • Auburn University

  • Boise State University

  • California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

  • Clemson University

  • Colorado State University

  • Cornell University

  • Duke University

  • George Mason University

  • Michigan State University

  • Mississippi State University

  • North Carolina State University

  • Oregon State University

  • Penn State University

  • Rutgers University

  • Stanford University

  • State University of New York

  • Stony Brook University

  • Texas Tech

  • University of Alaska

  • University of California-Davis

  • University of California-San Diego

  • University of Connecticut

  • University of Florida

  • University of Hawaiʻi

  • University of Montana

  • University of New Hampshire

  • University of Southern California

  • Virginia Tech

  • West Virginia University

  • Yale University

Responsive Management Conducts:

  • Multimodal surveys

  • Telephone surveys

  • Mail surveys

  • Online surveys

  • Intercept surveys

  • Personal interviews

  • Focus groups

  • Needs assessments

  • Market analyses and inventories

  • Message testing

  • Literature reviews

  • Data collection to support strategic plans

Since 2019, Responsive Management has been the primary survey contractor for the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, Virginia. Our work for VCU includes administration of the ongoing Virginia Commonwealth Poll.

The Virginia Commonwealth University L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs has considered Responsive Management our go-to provider of high-quality surveys for many years. We choose them every time they have capacity because we can rely on them to provide the most cost-effective, high quality phone surveys of the many such providers that we have tried over the years. 

They provide a full range of services, including sound methodological advice and questionnaire review on the front-end, the highest quality of data collection based on monitoring of recorded interviews, and data cleaning and weighting on the back end. We often do not have access to a methodologist, so we rely on the team at Responsive Management to provide us with feedback about the integrity of our survey instrument, making sure that we do not ask biased or leading questions. They do this each and every time, always catching something that we have missed.

Their customer service is perhaps the best of any that I personally work with. They provide timely updates, let us know quickly if something isn’t going smoothly, and always deliver on time. We are extremely pleased (and lucky) to have them as our data collection resource for surveys.

— Mary A. Moore, Director of Field Research, Survey and Evaluation Research Laboratory

L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, Virginia Commonwealth University

Responsive Management University Project Highlights

Clemson Extension’s Carolina Clear Stormwater Research. Responsive Management conducted a comprehensive public opinion and behavioral research study for Clemson Extension’s Carolina Clear Program to evaluate the effectiveness of stormwater education efforts and guide future outreach strategy. The study entailed a scientific, probability-based survey of 2,003 South Carolina residents across five Carolina Clear regions encompassing 11 counties. The research measured residents’ awareness and knowledge of stormwater pollution, environmental attitudes and behaviors, misconceptions and barriers to behavior change, and communication preferences, with detailed regional and demographic analyses identifying audiences and issues requiring additional attention.

Ongoing Survey Research for Virginia Commonwealth University. Since 2019, Responsive Management has served as the primary survey research partner to VCU, conducting roughly 30 studies ranging from recurring statewide Commonwealth Polls to specialized research on community safety, cybersecurity, the COVID-19 vaccine, and more. Across these projects, Responsive Management has supported the full research process, including questionnaire development, probability-based sampling, data collection, weighting, statistical analysis, subgroup and trend analysis, data visualization, interpretation, and reporting. The resulting research provides VCU with statistically defensible, accessible findings for understanding Virginians’ views on important public issues.

United States Pacific Region Aquaculture Research. Responsive Management partnered with California Sea Grant, the University of Southern California Sea Grant, Alaska Sea Grant, Oregon Sea Grant, and Hawaii Sea Grant, along with aquaculture experts across the U.S. Pacific region, to conduct a large-scale study examining public awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of aquaculture. The research entailed a scientific, multimodal survey of 3,479 adults in Alaska, California, Hawaii, and Oregon, with more than 800 completed surveys in each state and sampling designs tailored to the geographic and aquaculture context of each location. Working collaboratively with the university and Sea Grant partners, Responsive Management developed questionnaires that combined a common core of measures for cross-state comparisons with state-specific questions and administered the research using telephone, text, and online contact strategies.