Business R&D and Innovation Survey Pretesting Plan

The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). We plan to conduct semi-structured in-depth early stage scoping interviews, which are intended to inform the development of survey questions for the Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRD-1) to be tested at a later date. The proposed early stage scoping interviews will be used to gain insight into how enterprises define innovation and manage and account for their innovative activities.

This research is part of an international effort led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in which the National Science Foundation, the sponsor of this research, is a partner. Similar interviews will be conducted in other OECD member countries with the goal of producing internationally-comparable survey questions to measure private-sector innovation. The survey questions that result from this research will be used to improve upon questions currently asked on the BRD-1, an ongoing survey co-sponsored by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Science Foundation; alternately, they may be added to some other existing instrument or form the basis for a new survey, as appropriate. This determination will be subject to the full OMB clearance process.

From late June through August 2012, staff from the Response Improvement Research Staff within the Economic Directorate of the Census Bureau plan to conduct one round of early stage scoping interviews. The early stage scoping interviews will be conducted with respondents from 20-30 businesses in the following metropolitan areas: Chicago, Boston, New York City, Houston, Atlanta, and Baltimore/Washington DC. Companies will be selected to achieve a variety with regard to industry. Particular industries will not be targeted; rather, we will try to achieve a diverse sample from among wholesale/retail, manufacturing, and the service sector. We will also attempt to achieve approximately equal numbers of large, medium, and small companies.

The early stage scoping interviews are designed to explore respondents’ understanding of the topics, determine data availability, understand the vocabulary used by respondents and explore survey process issues. Results from early stage scoping will be used to specify survey questions. Enclosed is a draft protocol developed by OECD that we, along with other participating countries, will use for the early stage scoping interviews.

All interviews will be conducted at the business sites. Subject area specialists from the Census Bureau’s Manufacturing and Construction Division and the National Science Foundation will accompany the research interviewer on most, if not all, of the interviews. They will assist, e.g., in cases where additional clarification of the subject matter is required. Interviews will be audio recorded, with the participants’ permission, to aid researchers in accurately reporting findings and recommendations.

We intend to identify and recruit appropriate business personnel to participate in this study through letters sent via priority mail to the offices of senior company executives, with telephone follow-ups. Our recruiting strategy is to purposively select a few (up to 5) large companies in a given metropolitan area on the basis of their impact either within their industry or across multiple industries. Once these "anchor" companies are selected, we will then select up to 20 additional medium and small companies purposively, to achieve a diverse sample. We anticipate that at least half of these companies will not be able or willing to participate in this study, which will be determined during a 5-minute recruiting phone call. For the companies that agree to our request, we estimate approximately 1 hour of company time will be needed, in total, for the initial conversation, follow-up calls, and the time for a meeting coordinator to identify and schedule appropriate meeting participants.

 

Participants will be informed that their response is voluntary and that the information they provide is confidential and will be seen only by Census Bureau or special sworn employees involved in the research project. We will not be providing monetary incentives to participants in this study.

We anticipate that each interview will include between two and six company participants, with an average of three company participants. We estimate that, on average, the early stage scoping interviews will take an hour-and-a-half. Thus, the total estimated burden for completed interviews is 135 hours (30 interviews X 3 company participants X 1.5 hours).

In order to schedule up to 30 interviews, we may contact approximately 125 companies. We estimate the maximum associated recruiting burden to be approximately 38 hours (30 X 1 hour + 95 X 5 minutes = 37:55). Thus the estimated total public reporting burden for this research is approximately 173 hours.

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and statistical aspects of the design of this research is:

Alfred D. Tuttle

Response Improvement Research Staff

U.S. Census Bureau,

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-7809

[email protected]

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