The Questionnaire:

The survey was undertaken by means of a structured questionnaire

that was mailed to the potential respondents.
This approach was considered the most efficient means of collecting
data for this exploratory study. This approach is an efficient data
collection 55 mechanism, because it is fairly simple to administer,
cost effective and less time consuming to reach the target group
located in different geographical locations throughout India,
deliberately ensures that data on working capital management is
collected systematically, the measurement of the working capital
variables in the study are known, and the respondents can complete
the survey at their own convenience. However, there are limitations
to postal questionnaires. Typically, return rates of questionnaires are
low, and that may mean that it is difficult to determine the
representativeness of the sample, because those responding to the
survey may be different from the population they are suppose to
represent. A response rate of 30% is regarded as acceptable for mail
surveys. Other disadvantages of mail surveys are that doubts cannot
be clarified, organizations may have a policy not to complete surveys
as it . is too time-consuming or the volumes of surveys are too large,
the timing of the survey may be inappropriate, mail addresses may
be incorrect or the companies have moved to other premises, and
respondents may not be willing or interested in completing the
survey. The consequence of these limitations is that follow-up
procedures for nonresponses are invariably necessary. A pre-test and
a pilot study were undertaken to test the appropriateness of the
questions and to ensure that the respondents understood the
questions and what was required of them. Moreover, the pre-test
and pilot study served to test for language, wording, content and
purpose, so that biases in questions did not occur, and also to ensure
that the principles of wording were observed.

The pre-test and pilot study survey questionnaire and covering letter
was mailed to these managers prior to the second telephone
conversation during which arrangements were made to conduct a
half hour face-to-face personal interview to establish rapport and
motivate the respondents to discuss the documents sent to them.
One of the pre-test/pilot study respondents, despite having initially
agreed to participate, declined from participating after receiving the
questionnaire for consideration. As a result of undertaking the pre-
test and pilot studies weaknesses in the survey questionnaire were
identified. All the respondents indicated that they would happily
complete the closed questions with the open-ended comments, but
stated that they were put off by open-ended questions because they
are too time consuming to complete.

After discussion and careful consideration it was decided to retain

open ended questions because the researcher wanted to invite
comment rather than prompt the respondents to answer what they
think is the theoretically acceptable answer. It is well known that
closed ended questions are conducive to bias, and may be confining
(Sekaran, 2000). Some of the other amendments suggested by the
four respondents were adopted. These included changing the layout
and presentation of the open-ended questions to decrease the
length of the questionnaire. The terminology, language, and
sequences of the questions in the questionnaire were familiar to all
the respondents in the pilot study group and remained unaltered. No
changes were made to the content and purpose of each question.