Boards of Advisors in Small Businesses

Methodology

First, we conducted a pilot study. This study surveyed the Chief Executive Officers or Presidents of 100 small businesses in Wisconsin. We defined "small businesses" as those between $20,000,000 and $120,000,000 of revenues. We conducted the study to test the original survey instrument. Second, after revising the survey instrument on the basis of feedback from respondents in the pilot study, we conducted our national study.

For the national study, we purchased from Dun & Bradstreet a randomly chosen list of names of 2500 organizations with revenues from $20,000,000 to $120,000,000. Then, from this list we chose a random sample of 250 firms for each of the following groups in terms of millions of dollars of revenue: 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90, 91-100, 101-110, 111-120. For each of the 250 small businesses selected, we sent the Chief Executive Officer or President a cover letter and survey questionnaire, as shown in Exhibits A and B.