Cognitive Interviews for the Survey of New Foreign Direct Investment; Usability Testing of the BRDIS Internet Reporting Application

BE-13 Cognitive Interview Protocol

Draft: November 4, 2009

Before the Questionnaire:

• Please tell me a little about this company.

  • What sorts of activities is it involved in?

• What is your role in this company? Have you filled out government forms in the past? Which ones?

• Generally speaking, how do government forms get completed?

Now I’m going to hand you a copy of the questionnaire. We’ll go through it page by page but we’ll skip over some sections. Please write on it, and complete it as if we weren’t here, to the extent possible. I’ll ask you questions as you finish some items.

Page 1:

• What is your initial impression upon seeing the form?

• What do you notice?

• What information do you need prior to beginning the survey? Of the information on this page, what is the most important?

Part I (Type of transaction):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

• What does each line mean to you?

• Please describe the situation in your company that made you choose this answer.

• (If marked or should have marked line d) Do you recall reading the definition in line d?

  • What does that definition mean to you?

  • Did you find that definition useful or not useful?

Part V:

Item 2 (Date of expansion):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did/would you go about answering it?

Item 3 (Name of expanded affiliate):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

Item 4 (Foreign parent’s information):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

• What does “direct or indirect voting interest” mean to you?

• How did you choose the industry code?

  • What did you think of the way the industry code list is organized?

  • Was it easy or difficult to find the code that you needed?

Item 5 (FP is UBO?):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

• What does “ultimate beneficial owner” mean to you?

• (If R marks “yes”, note whether s/he skips to item 7)

Item 6 (UBO’s information):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

• How did you choose the industry code?

  • What did you think of the way the industry code list is organized?

  • Was it easy or difficult to find the code that you needed?

• Did you have to choose among multiple codes that would have fit? If so, how did you settle on one over the other?

Item 7 (Location of new operation):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

• Note if R writes full name of state or uses an abbreviation of some sort.

Item 8 (Major activities):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

• What does “producer or distributor of information” mean to you?

Item 9 (Description of products/services):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about deciding what to write?

• What do you think of the amount of space provided for you to write your answer?

Item 10 (Industry code):

• (Note whether R finds code list)

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

• How easy or difficult was it to find an appropriate code from the list?

• What did you think of how the list was organized?

• Did you have to choose among multiple codes that would have fit? If so, how did you settle on one over the other?

Item 11 (Current employment of new operation):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

• What does “current employment” mean to you?

• What types of employees were you including in this figure?

• What records did/would you look at in order to answer this question?

• How easy or difficult would it be to come up with this information?

Item 12 (Projected employment of new operation at full capacity):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

• What does “full capacity” mean to you?

• What types of workers would be included in this figure?

• What records did/would you look at in order to answer this question?

Item 13 (Book value of land):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

• What records did/would you look at in order to answer this question?

Item 14 (Book value of plant and equipment):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

• What records did/would you look at in order to answer this question?

Item 15 (Currently under construction?):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

• What does “construction is complete” mean to you?

Item 16 (Total expected construction expenditures):

• What is this item asking you?

• How did you go about answering it?

• What records did/would you look at in order to answer this question?

Wrap-up

• Would the information requested on this form generally be available in this department, or would information have to come from some other department?

  • How would you go about getting that information?

  • Would you pass the form over to that department, or just get information from them?

• In your opinion, who would be the best person in your company to handle this form?

• How much time would it take you to complete this report (actual time, not elapsed time)?

• Overall, how easy or difficult was it to complete this form? Which were the easiest questions to answer? Which were the hardest to answer?

Thank you.

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