Questionnaire Administration and Sample

Abstract

Data was collected by means of a questionnaire. The approval of the presidents of the national subsidiaries was asked; all agreed to participate. The questionnaires were then directed, with a cover letter describing the project, to all asset managers of each national organization. As already mentioned, the questionnaire was pre-tested in personal interviews in order to make sure all questions were understandable and of practical relevance for the respondents.⁴⁶⁵ Also, no major changes with regard to the constructs resulted from that process; however, demographic information (age and gender) were dropped in order to meet anonymity.⁴⁶⁶ The questionnaire was initially developed in English and was later translated into the dominant business language of each national subsidiary. Each version of the questionnaire was then translated back into English by another bilingual translator applying the back-translation technique described by BRISLIN.⁴⁶⁷ The comparison of the original English version and the back translation revealed no significant differences. The respondents could choose to fill out the questionnaire on their PCs or by hand.