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pdf - Nyenrode Business Universiteit

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3.3. SAMPLE AND MEASUREMENT 67<br />

3.3 Sample and Measurement<br />

The current section contains parts that are largely similar to parts of chapter 2. This<br />

similarity is due to the use of the same survey instrument and sample. Subsections 3.3.1<br />

and 3.3.2 are marked with an asterisk to indicate this repetition. The reader may want to<br />

skip these parts.<br />

3.3.1 Sample(*)<br />

This study uses primary data collected from 325 business units with an extensive survey<br />

instrument. The questionnaire was filled out by business unit managers contacted through<br />

student’s professional network. This approach has several benefits. The first benefit is<br />

respondent identification. The students were instructed to identify managers, who are<br />

responsible for an autonomous organizational body engaged in multiple activities (e.g.,<br />

purchasing, production, and sales). Furthermore, the respondent should have a superior<br />

within the organization (in other words: the respondent should not be the CEO). The<br />

second benefit is the possibility to conduct face-to-face interviews, which improves the<br />

valid interpretation of and careful responding to the questions by the respondent. During<br />

these interviews, the student can explain the survey questions (using a strict protocol<br />

provided by the researcher) to the business unit manager who answers the questions in the<br />

survey and fills out the questionnaire.<br />

BU size<br />

Firm size<br />

Table 3.1: Summary Statistics on Sample<br />

Panel A - size<br />

N Mean<br />

Std. dev.<br />

of mean<br />

Min. Max.<br />

FTE 325 220 439 10 5.000<br />

Revenue (mio EURO) 292 196 840 1 1.000<br />

FTE 321 14.730 41.771 31 470.123<br />

Revenue (mio EURO) 301 7.775 43.240 4 600.000<br />

Panel B - sector<br />

BU sector Production 54 Firm sector Production 71<br />

Services 181 Services 170<br />

Financial 52 Financial 62<br />

Not-for-profit 57 Not-for-profit 64

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