Arvest Bank Commissions Regional Poll

Arvest Bank of Fayetteville announced Thursday it has commissioned consumer sentiment survey to measure and report the economic expectations and outlook of consumers in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

The survey, according to a news release, will measure respondents’ opinions on their state’s economy for a comparison to the national Surveys of Consumers conducted by the University of Michigan for Thomson/Reuters.

Conducted twice a year, the Arvest Consumer Sentiment Survey results will be shared with local media outlets and Arvest business customers.

The University of Arkansas, Missouri State University, the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma City University have been commissioned for the survey.

The Arvest Bank Consumer Sentiment Survey, which measures the level of optimism on the state of the economy reflected by consumers’ activities of saving and spending, will be designed for direct comparison with the Thomson/Reuters Michigan survey. The nationally representative Thomson/Reuters Michigan survey is reported on a monthly basis and is based on telephone interviews of households. 

The Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) at the Sam M. Walton School of Business at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville is leading the research team and The University of Oklahoma’s Public Opinion Learning Laboratory (POLL) will conduct the telephone surveys. CBER, Missouri State University and Oklahoma City University will analyze state level data and provide local analysis of the findings.

CBER director Kathy Deck will be the lead researcher for the project and will provide evaluation and guidance for results within Arkansas. David Mitchell, director of the Bureau of Economic Research at Missouri State University, and Russell Evans, director of the Steven C. Agee Economic Research & Policy Institute at Oklahoma City University, will evaluate results for their respective states.

The first Arvest Bank Consumer Sentiment Survey data should be ready for public release next spring after the survey is conducted in February. The next survey results will be released at the end of the third quarter.

 The survey is designed to measure three primary indices mirroring the national Thomson/Reuters Michigan Surveys of Consumers: Index of Consumer Sentiment, Index of Consumer Expectations and Current Conditions Index.

“Arvest Bank has always been attuned to our customers and the markets we serve,” said Jason Kincy, marketing director for Arvest Bank. “To be consumer- and community-focused, we need to know our customers’ views on the economic climate as it applies to Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. This type of survey has long been needed on the state level and will help us better understand the economic mood of our friends and neighbors while providing factual guidance for our small business customers as to the economic mood in their markets.”

The survey will have a sample size of 1,200 with 400 respondents from each state and a margin of error of 4.2 percent at the state level.