2010 - Public Relations Society of America

and 65+ (15.4%). More than half were married (54%), and 45% were separated, no longer
married or never married (1% refused). All but 1.9% had earned at least a high school diploma,
with 27.9% having some college, 33.4% a bachelor’s degree, and 24.9% having completed some
schooling beyond a bachelor’s degree. Household income of respondents covered a wide
spectrum – not surprising in an urban county with a strong presence of banking and other
financial institutions. Among respondents, 12.2% earned $20,000-$39,999 annually; 15.4%
earned $40,000-$59,999; 12.4% earned $60,000-$79,000; 10.6% earned $80,000-$99,999;
16.2% earned $100,000-$149,000; and 10.6% earned $150,000+ (18% refused). Length of
county residency also covered a wide spectrum: five years or less (25.3%); 6-20 years (35.3%);
20+ years (39.3%). Respondents were preponderantly homeowners (80.7%) as opposed to
renters (17.4%) or other/refused (1.9%).
Interviewing and Data Processing
Undergraduate students employed by the Urban Institute conducted interviews following
specialized training by Institute staff. Interviews were conducted via a Computer Aided
Telephone Interviewing (CATI) system from the Institute’s own campus facility. Surveys were
completed from 5-9 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 4-7 p.m. on Fridays over the course of
roughly six weeks. Data were imported from the CATI system into the Statistical Package for
the Social Sciences (SPSS) for cleaning and analysis.
The following two questions were placed in the survey instrument and constitute the
basis of results and discussion to follow:
1. Before I would purchase a product or service from a company, I would consider that
company’s reputation in terms of responsible business practices and the company’s
contributions to community improvement.
Always Frequently Occasionally Rarely Never
2. Before I would invest in a company’s stock, I would consider that company’s
reputation in terms of responsible business practices and the company’s contributions to
community improvement.
Always Frequently Occasionally Rarely Never
Sampling Error
The full sample size of 850 yields a potential sampling error of ±4.14% at the 95%
confidence level. Usable surveys for the analysis related to this report were sometimes as low as
821, which would indicate a slightly but not consequentially lower confidence level.
Additionally, the assumption was made that roughly 95% of county households have telephones,
with the 5% of households lacking phones likely found among lower economic strata.
Results
The tables that follow depict results to the two survey questions regarding respondents’
purchase and investment decisions. In each case, responses were recorded using a 5-point
Likert-type scale with 1 indicating “always,” 2 indicating “frequently,” 3 indicating
“occasionally,” 4 indicating “rarely,” and 5 indicating “never.” Table 1 shows a mean between
“frequently” and “occasionally” for both decision categories, with little variation among income
levels. Overall means were 2.61 for purchase decisions (sd = 1.22) and 2.57 for investment
decisions (sd = 1.71). Responses by income level were compared using a one-way ANOVA. No
significant difference was found for intent to purchase (F(6, 684) = 1.065, p = .382) or for intent
to invest (F(6, 682) = 1.232, p = .288). Tukey’s HSD was used to draw multiple post-hoc
comparisons among income levels, and once again, no significant differences emerged.
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