Implications of changing Quota after study has been launched?

Question

Dear Sawtooth Software Team,

I have started my CBC with cross quotation (age and education).
Now it turned out, that the market research firm is not able to provide respondents based on this cross quotation, but only based on simple quotations on age and education (seperatly).

For now the survey is paused.

I have read in the manual, that quotas (except quota limits) can not be changed once the study has been startet. What implications does it have for my further data collection, if I change the quotas from cross quotation to simple quotation in Lighthouse Studio and upload the survey again?
Is there any option to asign the already collected respondents to the new Quotas?

Thank you so much in advance!

Best regards
Mel

Answer 1

Technically anything can be changed with a live survey, you just have differing amounts of problems that can ripple from those changes.

For example, if you delete the current quota and add a new one, the old quota data will not be recognized as a quota anymore, and respondents who have already taken the survey will not count towards the new quota.

I would probably write in to support@sawtoothsoftware.com and attach your survey file so we can see how the quota is currently set up versus what exactly you need to do.  Try to be as specific as possible in your email.

My gut would say it might be better to try to adjust the current quota by adding more cells, rather than try to add something completely new.