0625.MarketResearch.SuppStmt.PartB

0625.MarketResearch.SuppStmt.PartB.doc

Market Research to Broaden and Deepen U.S. Exporter Base

OMB: 0625-0264

⚠️ Notice: This form may be outdated. More recent filings and information on OMB 0625-0264 can be found here:

2012-04-27 - Extension without change of a currently approved collection

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SUPPORTING STATEMENT

U.S. Department of Commerce

International Trade Administration

Market Research to Broaden and Deepen the U.S. Exporter Base

OMB CONTROL NO. 0625-XXXX

SECTION B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

Universe and Respondent Selection

The U.S. Commercial Service (CS) wants to collect a representative sample of U.S. companies for each of the four surveys to be conducted. A random sample of U.S. companies will be obtained through a commercial vendor with the following sub-populations included:

New-to-export (NTE) vs. new-to-market (NTM) vs. increase-to-market (ITM) companies

Large (greater than 1,000 employees) vs. medium (500-999 employees) vs. small (499 or fewer employees) businesses

Urban vs. rural companies (and other geographic considerations)

Service vs. manufacturing companies (and other industry considerations)

Clients vs. non-clients

Given that the sub-populations vary considerably, the CS prefers to sample each subpopulation (stratum) independently using stratified random sampling. The CS will use proportionate allocation for sampling within each stratum by employing a sampling fraction in each of the strata that is proportional to that of the total population. However, if the CS determines that there is greater variability in some strata compared with others, a larger sample will be drawn from those strata with greater variability.

Procedures for Collecting Information

The data collection method chosen for the survey is telephone. The telephone collection method will utilize a skip pattern. This method was chosen in order to maximize response for each survey.

Methods to Maximize Response

The data collection method chosen for the surveys is telephone, which will utilize a skip pattern. This method was chosen for the following reasons:

Since no databases of current or potential exporters are available from a governmental agency, the contractor, Pacific Consulting Group (PCG), will purchase a list from Dunn & Bradstreet (D&B). The D&B list contains contact information including phone numbers but not email addresses.

No private firm offers e-mail address databases. To obtain email addresses, the addresses must be manually extracted from a firm’s Web site.

While Web surveys are easier to administer and provide a convenience option for the respondent, Web surveys do not have as high a completion rate as phone surveys. Since the samples in the surveys being conducted via phone are large, a high completion rate is necessary.

The Web survey has more potential to be completed by a respondent other than the targeted respondent, i.e. there is no way to verify who completed the survey. For the surveys being conducted, it is imperative that the right person answer the questions.

Testing Procedures

Questionnaire construction is one of the most critical stages in the survey development process. As a result, a great deal of thought has gone into the design issues involved (e.g. development and pretesting) regarding the surveys. In order to prevent the resulting data from being seriously misleading, the CS has beta-tested the surveys to ensure that the concepts are clearly defined and survey questions unambiguously phrased. Furthermore, designing a suitable questionnaire requires attention be given to its length and the order in which questions are asked – long questionnaires are apt to induce respondent fatigue and errors arising from inattention, incomplete answers, and refusals. In addition to making sure that the questionnaire is the suitable length, all questions in the survey have been pretested to ensure that they are understood by the respondents and do not adversely affect survey cooperation. In addition, the CS researched numerous public and private sector best practices and consulted with several survey experts during the design of this survey instrument; including staff from contractors Pacific Consulting Group and The Research Associates.

Contacts for Statistical Aspects of Data Collection

Individuals who will be or have been consulting on the statistical aspects of the design of the surveys, as well as those individuals who will actually collect and/or analyze the information, are: