Entrepreneurs or self-employed members - I need your help!

[manley]

Thanks for clicking, now I need you to please take my dissertation survey for a chance to win an Apple iPad mini.

Some of you know that I am a professor of business and entrepreneurship at Valdosta State University. I am (finally) in the latter stages of my doctoral program, and for my dissertation I am examining the relationships between entrepreneurs’ gender, their attitudes toward seeking assistance from entrepreneurship centers, their utilization of entrepreneurship centers, and subsequent changes in their firms’ financial performance.

As a token of my appreciation for your participation in this study, I will select one respondent at random to receive an Apple iPad mini. On average, respondents take about 15 minutes to complete the survey. To be eligible to win the iPad mini, you must also provide your name and contact information. However, my study is being supervised by the Institutional Review Board and as such your identity and individual responses will be kept confidential.

Thank you in advance for participating in this important study.
Here is the link to the survey: http://coles.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID= ... P6kXcUWAw5

[lonesouth]

Don't think this is what you meant to ask:

I resent a person – professionally trained or not – who wants to know financial details about my business.

[Salty Gator]

Done

[FishWithChris]

Don't think this is what you meant to ask:

I resent a person – professionally trained or not – who wants to know financial details about my business.

Why is this a bad question? Interested to hear your viewpoint for sake of discussion.

It's a variable of his previous questions on financial disclosure/assistance with specific verbiage usage to get a measure of emotion on the specific issue.

[manley]

Don't think this is what you meant to ask:

I resent a person – professionally trained or not – who wants to know financial details about my business.

Why is this a bad question? Interested to hear your viewpoint for sake of discussion.

It's a variable of his previous questions on financial disclosure/assistance with specific verbiage usage to get a measure of emotion on the specific issue.

lonesouth: galantnole has it correct. Without going into theory or measures, I have adapted a scale from the psychology literature that measures individuals' attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help (Fischer & Turner, 1970).

Thanks to both of you, and I also appreciate if you would help me snowball this sample by sharing with your entrepreneur friends.

[FishWithChris]

^ already sent it out quite a few places. How big of a sample are you attempting to reach?


And I cheated, I was a Research Consultant for the state for 4 years and worked in political survey research for almost 9. Social research (surveys, focus groups, statistical modelling, etc.) was my life - and still enjoy it!

[manley]

^ already sent it out quite a few places. How big of a sample are you attempting to reach?

Thank you. To obtain sufficient power, I need n = 200 for my final sample. I expect about a 20% response rate on the second wave, so I am shooting for 1,000 in this wave.

[gatoremt]

We closed our business this year. Do you still want my input?

[bman]

Done...
But I found one flaw. You didn't ask how many hours I commit to fishing and hunting

[manley]

We closed our business this year. Do you still want my input?

Thank you for offering, and I appreciate it very much. Since my sample is current business owners, it will preclude your response.
I'm terribly sorry to hear about your closing.


bman - Thank you.

[gatoremt]

We closed our business this year. Do you still want my input?

Thank you for offering, and I appreciate it very much. Since my sample is current business owners, it will preclude your response.
I'm terribly sorry to hear about your closing.


bman - Thank you.

Not a problem. We were in business for 12 yrs. The wife got tired of doing embroidery and being a Home School mom. Best of Luck to you.

[manley]

The message below was sent via e-mail this morning to the 84 respondents who have completed the survey thus far.

Dear friends,
From the bottom of my heart, I’d like to offer a very sincere “thank you” for responding to my dissertation survey. I am still collecting data, so I wanted to touch bases and let you know about the timeline and expected completion data. So far, I have received 84 completed responses. Of course, I am defining complete as those respondents who self-identify so that 1) I can follow up with the longitudinal component of my study and 2) I can enter their names into the drawing for the iPad mini. I spoke with my dissertation committee this morning, and they are quite pleased with the response thus far. However, I really need 200 responses so that my results will have sufficient statistical power. As a result, I have been directed to leave the survey open for several more weeks. Specifically, I expect to conclude data collection on October 31st. Once I close the survey, I will then alphabetize the respondents by last name and using a random number generator (www.random.org) to select the winner of the iPad. If the winner is not local, I will have Amazon.com ship it directly to him or her. Again, I sincerely appreciate your help in completing the survey and I appreciate your patience as I finish the data collection process.
Sincerely,
Scott Manley
Director, Center for Business & Economic Research
Lecturer, Department of Management & International Business
Coordinator, Entrepreneurship Minor
Langdale College of Business Administration
Valdosta State University
1500 N. Patterson Street
Valdosta, GA 31698
229-333-7878
www.valdosta.edu/cber