Contact informationBack



  Date of survey : August 15 - September 3, 2007
  Survey method : Telephone survey with interviewers
  Target population : Local SMEs of all sectors in Hong Kong. According to the Dun & Bradstreet Hong Kong Database Census, there are currently more than 230,000 SMEs operating in Hong Kong
  Sampling method :
The contacts were randomly drawn from the D&B HK Database, supplemented by the SME Directory maintained by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Duplicated numbers were filtered, and the remaining numbers were mixed in random order to produce the final sampling frame.
  Sample size : 500 successful cases
  Overall Response rate : 62.2%
  Std. sampling error : Less than2.2%

Table 1 Breakdown of contact information of the survey 
　
Frequency
Percentage
　 　 　
Respondents' ineligibility confirmed
250
12
Fax/ data line
22
1.1
Invalid number
119
5.7
Call-forwarding/ mobile/ pager number
20
1
Special technological difficulties
15
0.7
No eligible respondents (e.g. non-SME)
74
3.5
　 　 　
Respondents' eligibility not confirmed
611
29.2
Line busy
46
2.2
No answer
165
7.9
Answering device
18
0.9
Call-blocking
1
0
Language problem (i.e. non-Cantonese)
20
1
Interview terminated before the screening question
269
12.9
Others
92
4.4
　 　 　
Respondents' eligibility confirmed, but failed to complete the interview
730
34.9
Company-level refusal
15
0.7
Known respondent refusal
17
0.8
Appointment date beyond the end of the fieldwork period
598
28.6
Partial interview
3
0.1
Miscellaneous
97
4.6
　 　 　
Successful cases
500
23.9
　 　
　
Total
2,091
100

Table 2 Calculation of response rate 

   Overall Response rate
= [ Successful cases / (Successful cases + Incomplete cases* + Refusal cases by eligible respondents^) ]
= [ 500 / ( 500 + 272 + 32 ) ]
= 62.2%
* Including "partial interview" and "interview terminated before the screening question" 
^ Including "company-level refusal" and "known respondent refusal"