PAUTAS Y CRITERIOS A CONSIDERAR EN UN MANEJO DE HERBICIDAS EN HORTALIZAS

This section deals with issues relating to a number of important themes that were taken into account throughout the process of constructing and developing the research instrument of the empirical part of this thesis. More specifically, issues relating to the right size of envelope, content of the questionnaire, the cover letters and the reminder letters.

5.4.3.1. Envelopes

Lagos Business School, Pan-African University branded A4 size white envelopes were used for the main mail shots. In this way I avoided curling up the questionnaire, which could have made it less presentable. Brunel Business School branded stationery was not used as Lagos Business School is better known in the Nigerian market. The questionnaire could have been seen as being sponsored by the Lagos Business School, which could have been positive, in view of the reputation of the School in Nigeria.

As a result of the very poor postal service in Nigeria, the questionnaires were not posted but sent by courier and there is no known literature to back this approach of reaching respondents. The questionnaires were returned either by post or by courier at the expense of the respondents because of the reputation of Lagos Business School, which is seen as being close to the private sector and helping to solve their problems.

5.4.3.2 Cover Letters

All the mailed questionnaires were accompanied by a cover letter that was printed.

The printing of the questionnaire was meant to give it a more professional look. The printed

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stationery of Lagos Business School was used for all the cover letters which were produced on 12 pt size Times New Roman fonts.

All the letters were personalised and addressed directly to the recipients, e.g. Dear Dr.

Kolade, as this might increase the chance of the questionnaire being completed by the respondent. Although to sign about 1,200 cover letters is boring and time consuming, the researcher followed this procedure for maximum personalisation.

The basic aim of the cover letter was to persuade the recipients to complete the questionnaire and inform them about the purpose and the importance of the study. Thus in the four cover letters used in the study (notification, letter with questionnaire, reminder and final reminder), the researcher stressed the importance of this study for directors, boards and corporate governance practices (Appendices 2, 3, 4, 5).

Another issue of great importance is the anonymity and confidentiality of the respondents. In the cover letters as well as in the first and last pages of the questionnaire, the fact that the responses will be absolutely confidential and anonymity is guaranteed was stressed. However, respondents who would like to receive a complementary report of the major findings of the survey report were invited to attach their business cards on the last page of the questionnaire.

5.4.3.3 Research Instrument

The construction and development of the questionnaire took approximately three months to complete. More than 8 versions through revisions were produced in order for the questionnaire to take its final form. This section provides a brief account on issues relating to physical questionnaire itself such as, the length, font types and the kind of questions used.

5.4.3.3.1 Length of the Questionnaire

The questionnaire used in my study was 12 pages with 106 items (Appendix III). The front page included the title of the project, about 12 lines text explaining the main objectives of the study, offering broad guidelines to the respondent and repeating the sensitive issue of confidentiality, and finally the address to send the completed questionnaire to.

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On the last page (page 12) of the questionnaire there was a blank space for the respondents to make further comments, a space to attach his/her business card or write down his/her address, and finally some words of gratitude for the invaluable support.

The questionnaire was printed in a booklet form for a more professional appearance.

The booklet was white with some background design that gave it a pleasant look and feel and made it easy and friendly to read.

The questionnaire was divided into eleven sections (from A to K), each one exploring the various components of the theoretical framework. It contained 75 questions in total with 106 items. Same font size was used for all the questions and items.

5.4.3.3.2 Types of Questions

Closed-ended questions with ordered answered choices were mainly used in this questionnaire. Seven-point (7) scales (Likert and Semantic) were consistently used with the same order throughout the questionnaire. The questions and statements were kept as short as possible in order to increase respondents‘ comprehension (Lietz, 2008, Holbrook et al., 2006). The questions employed the active rather than the passive voice (Dornyei, 2003) and the researcher avoided using leading questions, generalisations, ambiguous expressions (Lietz, 2008; Martin, 2006). The sequence of the questions was developed upon the diagram (figure 3) illustrated in chapter 4.

5.4.3.3.3 Pre-testing

The survey instrument was pretested by administering the questionnaire to a small sample of respondents (ten directors) made up of participants of the Lagos Business School Chief Executive Program (CEP 19), whose responses and general reactions were sought and examined. Suggestions for refinement and clarification of questions and items in the instrument were made by respondents with regard to meaning and clarity of each statement, relevance and adequacy of items, and any problems or uncertainties they had in completing the questionnaire.

Even though the respondents in this pre-testing exercise were not sufficiently knowledgeable about matters of questionnaire design, they had experience of serving on boards of quoted companies. As part of the pretesting process the questionnaire was also

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submitted to four senior academics with extensive combined experience in survey research, who were able to provide critical assessment of the content validity of each item, as suggested by Sudman and Bradburn (1982) and Schilling and Steensma (2002). These expert suggestions during the questionnaire design and revision process helped ensure a close match between the pre-test and final versions of the instrument.