2012 Economic Census – Puerto Rico (IA-97123)
Cognitive Interview Protocol
Draft: June 1, 2011
Kristin Stettler (RIRS, OEPI)
Research Questions:
Data availability
Comprehension of terminology
Reaction to versions of Type of Construction question (Item 23)
Expected Length of Interviews: 60 minutes
Materials Needed:
2-3 copies of the IA-97123 test questionnaire
consent form
digital recorder
business cards
Introduction:
People around the table:
How long at company, position/title and responsibilities
Census observers
Survey purpose: To provide data for the economic census
Meeting purpose:
To understand the process used to answer questions,
To get feedback on current form – not a test of you but the form, getting information about interpretations, impressions, and opinions.
No right or wrong answers. All feedback is useful.
Meeting structure: General and specific questions about your company and the form itself. Some questions may seem odd or redundant because we are not accountants, and because we’re meeting with various companies, that have different organizational structures and ways of keeping records.
Permission to audio record? Have respondent sign consent form.
General Probes:
In your own words, what was that question asking?
What are you thinking about?
Can you tell me more about that?
You answered, “…” because…?
I want to make sure I understand, can you explain that again?
Can you tell me how you arrived at that answer?
What did you include? What did you exclude?
What records did you use?
Reflect back on R’s answer and ask R to correct (“I want to make sure I have it right. I think you said, “…?”)
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. Please write on it, and complete it as if we weren’t here, to the extent possible. We are only interested in certain items on the form. I will ask you some additional questions as you finish these items of interest.
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?
Item 1 (Employer Identification Number):
Where would you need to go in order to get this information?
Are you familiar with the 941-PR form? Do you complete that form for the IRS?
Item 2 (Physical Location)
What was this question asking?
How did you go about answering item 2B (municipio)?
Were you reporting for the headquarters or for the location of the construction project?
Item 3 (Operational Status)
Did you have any issues answering this item?
Item 4 (Months in Operation)
How did you answer this question?
Item 5 (Sales, Shipments, Receipts, or Revenue)
How did you go about reporting the information for this item?
What is included in this figure?
Do you have this figure readily available in your books, or would you have to calculate this figure? (if calculated) what figures would you have to use?
Does this figure include any grants, sales tax, or other taxes? If so, tell me more about them.
Are you familiar with the term ‘business gross receipts’? How is that related to the figure you provided for this item?
Item 6 (E-Commerce Sales, Shipments, Receipts, or Revenue)
Do you track e-commerce transactions separately from other transactions?
(If not) How would you go about providing a percentage of sales that are from e-commerce?
Is it important to you to track this information for your own purposes?
What types of e-commerce activities do you participate in?
Would it be possible for you to provide an actual figure versus a percentage? Why or why not?
Item 7 (Employment and Payroll)
How did you go about reporting the number of employees for this item?
What is your reaction to the pay periods listed in A1?
How did you go about reporting the total payroll for this item?
Was it easy or difficult to break out construction workers from all other employees?
What is your reaction to the Includes/Excludes and other instructions?
Item 8 (Hours Worked)
How did you come up with your answer to this item?
Did you have any issues answering this item?
Item 13 (Assets, Capital Expenditures, Retirements and Depreciation)
What are the capital expenditures that you included in your figure? Equipment, structures, capital lease agreements, other?
What did you have to do in order to supply this figure? Did it require any calculations?
How do you account for depreciation expenses?
What expenses did you provide in this figure? How did you go about calculating this information? How long would it take to gather the information for this item?
(for multi-units) Are you providing figures for this location or the entire company?
Item 14 (Rental Payments)
How did you go about reporting the information for this item?
Did you have any issues answering this item?
Item 16 (Selected Expenses)
How did you go about reporting the information for this item?
Any suggestions for instructions or wording?
Item 19 (Kind of Business)
How did you go about finding the option that best describes your company?
Did you have any issues identifying the option in this item that best fits your company? Is the description accurate? Why or why not?
Did the headings provided help you to narrow down your search for the correct choice?
Is there anything we could do to make this lengthy question easier for you to answer?
Was it clear to you that you were only supposed to select ONE choice?
Item 22 (Detail of Sales, Shipments, Receipts, or Revenue)
How did you go about providing percentages for the different activities? Did you use any book figures? If so what?
Note if R referenced item 5 to complete this item.
In your own words, what is meant by ‘kind of business’?
Item 23 (Type of Construction)
Show one version of the question (alternate which version in shown first).
Version 1
What is this item asking you?
Note if R referenced item 5 to complete this item.
What is your reaction to 23A?
How did you go about providing percentages for the different categories? Did you use any book figures? If so what?
Do the breakouts of building and nonbuilding construction make sense to you?
What is your reaction to this item? Would you say it is easy or difficult?
Version 2
What is this item asking you?
Note if R referenced item 5 to complete this item.
How did you go about providing percentages for the different categories? Did you use any book figures? If so what?
Do the breakouts of building and nonbuilding construction make sense to you?
What did you include in “Percent of all other business activities”?
What is your reaction to this item? Would you say it is easy or difficult?
Comparison
How do the two versions compare?
Which do you think is easier?
Which do you prefer?
Any suggestions to improve either version?
Show old version from 2007 form.
Compared to this version from the 2007 form, what do you think about the revised versions? Any input on why so many respondents left this item blank in 2007?
Item 26 (Special Inquiries)
What is this item asking you?
Note if R referenced item 5 to complete this item.
How did you go about gathering this information?
In your opinion, what is the difference between 1 and 2?
Item 27 (Legal Form of Organization)
What do you think about the categories for 27A and B?
Are there other options that should be provided?
Was this item easy or difficult to answer?
Wrap-up
Did you provide any figures on this form that were for the entire company rather than for this location? If so, which ones? What would be involved in breaking down that figure to provide information for just this location?
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?
Ease/ Difficulty: Which questions were easiest/ hardest to answer? Why?
Perceived importance: Are there some questions that seem more important to answer than others? Which ones?
Instruction booklet: Would you use the instruction booklet when you are actually completing the survey? Why did/ didn’t you use the instruction booklet? What features of the booklet do you like/ dislike?
Electronic reporting via Web:
If you had the ability to report via paper, like you’ve seen here, or via the Web, what would you prefer? How come?
Likely Respondent:
Who would be the appropriate person in the company to provide the information the survey requests? Would that be you?
(for mulit-unit locations) Would you typically be the person to complete this form, or would it be completed at your company’s headquarters?
What do you usually do when a form asks for data you don’t have direct access to, but you know exists within the company? (Do you usually try to find out where that data is and obtain it yourself? Would you end the form to that person? Would you give it to your boss? Would you do something else?)
Once the form has been completed, what happens? (Review process? How does that work – who reviews, who signs off, who “approves” returning it?)
Thank you.
Puerto
Rico Construction Protocol – IA97123
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | GOVS Cognitive Interview Protocol |
| Author | Elvin J. Thomas |
| Last Modified By | demai001 |
| File Modified | 2011-06-08 |
| File Created | 2011-06-08 |