Researchers have suggested several recommendations to maximise questionnaire response rate (De Vaus, 2001; Oppenheim, 2003). These recommendations include, for example, pre-testing the questionnaire, ensuring the confidentiality of the information provided by participants, the design and the appearance of the questionnaire, and the features of the covering letter (see section 3.6). For accounting students, after the final version of the questionnaire was formed, contacts were made with friends at the four
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Libyan universities (Omer El-Moktahr University, Garyounis University, Almargab University, and Mosrata University) to arrange the distribution of the questionnaires to Libyan accounting students. As mentioned early, the four friends are lecturers and members of accountancy departments at their universities and had agreed to distribute the questionnaires to their students. Once the arrangements were made, the survey packages were delivered to each of them. The lecturers were asked to explain several issues to their students prior to delivering the packages. These issues are related to the questionnaire structure, which included explaining the aim of the study, ensuring anonymity, stating participation is completely voluntary, and no personal information was required apart from participants’ age and gender. Lecturers were asked to deliver the questionnaires during the class and to ask their students to return the completed questionnaires the following day. In April 2009, one month before accounting students’ exams, the questionnaires were distributed. Each student was given a package, which included a covering letter, the questionnaire, supporting letters, and an envelope. A total of 168 questionnaires were distributed to Libyan accounting students, which resulted in receiving 152 usable questionnaires providing a response rate of 90.50% (see Table 3.3). Several accounting students’ ethical decision making studies obtained very similar response rate (e.g., Elm, Kennedy, & Lawton, 2001; Fleming et al., 2010; Leitsch, 2004, 2006). Typically, the response rate of student samples is very high, which may due to administrating the questionnaires in classes.
With regard to the Libyan management accountants, a total of 71 Libyan manufacturing companies were visited during the period June-August 2009. In these companies, the financial/ management accounting managers were contacted and had agreed to deliver the packages of the questionnaires. The number of packages then delivered to the companies was based primarily on the list the financial or management accounting managers provided. Reasons for using those mangers within Libyan companies to distribute the questionnaires include: first, there were no contact details available for Libyan management accountants, whether on the companies’ websites or any other kind of professional body; second, the number of Libyan management accountants was not
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available to the researcher at the time of distributing of the questionnaires; third anonymity could be increased by using this method which might result in encouraging participants to complete the questionnaire. Once the number of management accountants in each company was determined, the packages were delivered to the financial manager/management accounting manager. Similar to the accounting students, each package consisted of a covering letter, the questionnaire, supporting letters, and an envelope. The managers were asked to ensure that participation was completely voluntary, anonymity was assured, and the management accountants should read carefully the covering letter and all the instructions related to each question before completing the questionnaire. Moreover, management accountants were required to complete the questionnaire, seal it in the envelope, and submit it to the financial manager/management accounting manager within one week. A total of 229 usable responses were received, providing a response rate of approximately 58.40% (see Table 3.3). It can be mentioned here that the majority of the returned questionnaires were received in two weeks; only 26 usable questionnaires were received after three weeks and they were considered as late responses. Randall and Gibson (1990) found that the response rate ranged commonly from 21% to 50% in business ethics literature. Bampton (2004) also found similar results in accounting ethics research. Also the literature suggests that a response rate between 60% and 70% is considered to be acceptable (Mangione cited in: Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 244). Thus, the response rate of this study was felt to be more than satisfactory.
Table 3.3 Survey Response Rate
Management accountants Accounting students
No % No % Total distributed 392 100 168 100 No response (148) (37.75) (11) (6.55) Total received 244 62.25 157 93.45 Unusable/partially completed (15) (3.85) (5) (2.95) Usable 229 58.40 152 90.50
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3.9.1 Non-Response Bias and Social Desirability
It is crucial for any piece of social research to consider the non-response and social desirability bias effect due to the issue of generalizing the study results. Kervin (1992) defines Non-responses as biased “when cases with certain characteristics are more likely to be refusals or non-contacts”. Also non-responses can occur as a result of not obtaining usable responses from some sample members. There are several methods of overcoming this issue. The most common methods include first, comparing non-respondents with respondents by using an interview (Zaid, 1997) to investigate the reasons for non- respondents, and second comparing late responses to early responses for differences because late respondents are assumed to serve as a proxy for non-respondents in survey research (Armstrong & Overton, 1977; Nwachukwu & Vitell, 1997; Read & Rama, 2003). Regarding the first method, there was no possible way to know who the non- respondents were because of the anonymity provided to participants.
Since the issue of non-response could significantly impact the results of the study, it was seriously considered. Independent samples t-test and Chi-square were employed to assess the non-response bias issue. Only the non-response of management accountants was assessed because 37.75% did not return the questionnaire, whereas only 6.55% of accounting students did not respond. Dependent variables (ethical recognition, ethical judgment, and ethical intention in scenarios 2 and 4) and several independent variables investigated in this study (age, educational level, work experience, size of organization, moral philosophy dimensions, and ethical climate types) were examined. Twenty six questionnaires were received late after contacts were made to the financial/management accounting mangers regarding those who had not replied. The results of Independent Sample t-test and Chi-square shown in Tables 3.4 and 3.5 revealed no statistical differences between the mean scores of the normal respondents and late respondents and also between any of the categorical variables and the type of response at a 0.05 level of significance.
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Table 3.4 Response and Non-Response: t-test Results
Variables Response M (S.D) Non-Response M (S.D) df t Ethical recognition Scenario 2 4.2 (.92) 4.3 (.90) 227 -.55 Scenario 4 3.4 (1.2) 3.8 (1.3) 226 -1.55 Ethical judgment Scenario 2 4.2 (.96) 4.3 (88) 227 -.73 Scenario 4 3.6 (1.0) 3.8 (1.3) 226 -.77 Ethical intention Scenario 2 2.3 (1.3) 2.3 (1.2) 227 -.07 Scenario 4 2.7 (1.2) 2.6 (1.1) 226 .12
Moral philosophy dimensions
Moral idealism 4.3 (.5) 4.2 (.4) 226 .33 Moral relativism 3.1 (.8) 2.9 (.7) 226 1.31
Ethical climate types
Law and professional code 3.7(.8) 3.9 (.9) 221 -.95 Company interest 3.3 (.9) 3.2 (1.0) 221 .27 Social responsibility 3.5 (.8) 3.5 (.9) 221 -.05 Personal morality 3.0 (.9) 3.1 (.9) 221 -.32 *p < .05
Table 3.5 Response and Non-Response: Chi-Square Test of Relatedness / Independent
*p < 0.05
The social desirability effect refers to evidence that some participants’ answers to questions are related to their perception of the social desirability of those answers (Bryman & Bell, 2007). Social desirability bias has been demonstrated in studies of ethical behaviour and managerial decision making (Beams, Brown, & Killough, 2003; Davis et al., 2001; Fernandes & Randall, 1992; Weaver et al., 1999; Zerbe & Paulhus, 1987).
Several researchers have indicated that this issue should be considered due to the possible impact may have on individuals’ ethical decision making process (e.g., Fernandes & Randall, 1992; Randall & Gibson, 1990; Watley & May, 2004; Weber, 1992). They also
Variables Pearson Chi-Square df Asymp
Sig.(2-tailed)
Age 1.643 3 0.65
Experience .972 3 0.80
Educational level 1.597 3 0.66
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have argued that this issue may have negative impact on the validity of the study results because of the sensitivity of ethics research.
Several common methods, including the Crowne-Marlowe Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1964) and the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) (Paulhus, 1984; Zerbe & Paulhus, 1987), have been recommended in business ethics research to measure social desirability bias (Flannery & May, 2000; Manley, Benavidez, & Dunn, 2007). Since there was no space in the questionnaire to include more questions and items to measure this issue, it was decided to adopt another technique to limit it. Several efforts were made to reduce or overcome the potential for social desirability response bias. First, actors were used in the scenarios (i.e. writing the scenarios in the third person), rather than having the participant takes the part of the decision maker (McMahon & Harvey, 2006; Ng et al., 2009; Ponemon & Gabhart, 1990; Simga-Mugan et al., 2005); second, in the covering letter attached to the questionnaire the anonymity and confidentiality were assured and maintained to all participants (Fritzsche, 2000; Nederhof, 1985; Ng et al., 2009; Sweeney & Costello, 2009; Watley & May, 2004); third, a self-administered questionnaire was used (Flannery & May, 2000; Nederhof, 1985; Sweeney & Costello, 2009; Watley & May, 2004); and finally, the questionnaire was submitted to Libyan management accountants through the financial manager in each company and to accounting students by the lecturer in each university.