Aptitud Cardiorrespiratoria

The survey was conducted among a sample of the mining companies operating in Australia; that is those companies that own operational mines in any State/Territory of Australia. The survey was undertaken in order to explore what mining companies regard as information needs of NGOs with respect to their social and environmental performance as well as engagement undertaken for the purposes of identifying those needs, and the resultant disclosure of information in corporate SE reports.

In order to compile a database of potential survey respondents, the following sources were used:

1. Minerals Council of Australia, the mining industry body in Australia – member companies, as these are the companies which “produce up to 85 per cent of Australia's mineral output including precious metals, base metals, light metals and iron ore, as well as energy materials such as coal”;

2. All Ordinaries Index of The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) – the mining companies, constituents of the index, which represent the largest mining companies listed on ASX in terms of capitalisation;

3. S&P/ASX 300 Metals & Mining (Industry) – the mining companies, constituents of the index;

4. The database of companies in the ‘Mining and Exploration Australia and New Guinea’ portal which represents “The most comprehensive portal about Australasia’s mining and exploration industry”.

After eliminating the duplicates, a total of 1184 mining companies were identified. Out of 1184 companies, the survey was distributed to 594 companies each of which have their mines located in Australia, where their social and environmental performance is assumed to affect first and foremost Australia, rather than any other country.

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4.4.5. Ethics Approval and Pilot-Testing of the Survey 2

Similar to Survey 1, prior to the distribution of the survey, ethics approval was sought from the Social Science Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Tasmania. The application included information about the selection and recruitment of participants as well as procedures of data collection and storage. After obtaining the ethics approval, the questionnaire was pilot-tested in two stages. During the first stage, the covering letter, the questionnaire and a survey evaluation form were sent to two academics from the Discipline of Accounting in the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics. The evaluation form included questions focused on whether instructions were easy to follow, questions unbiased and easy to follow along with how long it took to complete the survey. Additionally, respondents were asked to provide any other comments they had in relation to the questionnaire.

The responses from the first stage of the pilot-test were then analysed and any amendments, which included minor wording changes, were incorporated in the questionnaire. Next the amended questionnaire was sent to a small sample of the mining companies. Similar to the pilot-test of the Survey 1, 30 mining companies were randomly selected from a total sample of 594 companies and forwarded a survey. No responses were received from the mining companies.

Thus, only the first stage of the pilot-test yielded results. The survey with the changes from the first stage of the pilot-test was then distributed to mining companies which is discussed in the following section.

4.4.6. Distribution of the Survey 2

To invite mining companies to participate in the survey, an email13 _{was sent to each}

company from the personal university email address of the researcher. The email contained a University of Tasmania logo as it is argued that letterhead stationary increases response rate (Neuman, 2004).The email was forwarded to the email address of the sustainability manager (or other similarly titled employees) or alternatively the CEO. If the email addresses of these personnel members were not available, the invitation was sent to the central email address of the company.

The email included the letter of introduction explaining the purposes of the study, as well as providing an assurance of confidentiality and information regarding ethical

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clearance. Presence of this information in the letter of introduction is argued to increase the response rate (Moser and Kalton, 1972; Hair et al, 2003; Sauders et al, 2003; Neuman, 2004). The invitation also explained that the respondents’ completion of the survey signified their consent in participating in the study. The invitation provided a link to access the survey on SurveyMonkey14_.

Similar to the Survey 1, at the completion of the survey, respondents were redirected via a web link to the contact details page separate from the initial survey. Here they were offered the option to obtain a copy of the summary of the results when completed, which is another suggested method to increase the response rate (Saunders et al, 2003). If they wished to get a copy of the results of the survey, they were then asked to provide their contact details. As the contact details page was not linked to the initial survey due to the service available called “Survey Completion Redirect”, details collected from the contact details page were sent to the researcher separately from the survey results, ensuring non-identifiability of the survey data.

Two reminder emails were also distributed: the first one was sent two weeks after the date of the initial email, and the second one was sent a month from the date of the initial email. The reminders included an expression of gratitude to those respondents who had already completed the survey, and a short discussion of the importance of the study and a reminder to complete the questionnaire for those who had not. The reminder emails are also considered to be a method to increase the survey response rate (Saunders et al, 2003; Neuman, 2004).

The foregoing discussion has covered the details of the conducting of the surveys of NGOs and mining companies including the details of survey participants and distribution. To enrich the data collected via the surveys and content analysis, interviews with representatives of NGOs and mining companies were also conducted, which are discussed in the following section. .