Page 134 - Hojnik, Jana. 2017. In Persuit of Eco-innovation. Drivers and Consequences of Eco-innovation at Firm Level. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 134
In Pursuit of Eco-innovation
erally the top executive was addressed, called the “director” in Slovenia).
They were chosen as respondents because they were considered to be the
most knowledgeable person with respect to the issue of environmental
care in their company. However, if these respondents felt that they were
not the most appropriate informants to complete the survey, we asked
them to pass the questionnaires on to the most appropriate informants in
their companies (a cover letter highlighting the study’s background and
objectives and a link to the survey were included in the email) or to intro-
duce them to us, to finish the survey. Moreover, the respondents were as-
sured of anonymity in reporting results. A variety of industries and com-
pany sizes were included, since the focus of the study is on eco-innovation
in companies, which required us to include companies operating in all in-
dustry sectors, excluding public administration.
134 Data were collected from companies in Slovenia, in collaboration
with an external research company specializing in data collection, which
sent the questionnaire and invitation letter to a total of 6564 email ad-
dresses. The data were collected between November 2014 and January
2015. In the first round, the questionnaire was sent to 864 email address-
es of ecological companies in Slovenia (i.e., companies with environmen-
tal certificates, such as ISO 14001, EMAS or environmental certificates,
environmental prizes as identifies them also Gospodarska Zbornica
Slovenije – Slovenian Chamber of Commerce) as well as to to 5,700 other
email addresses (companies without environmental certificates but that
might implement eco-innovations as well). In total, three reminders were
sent to companies in order to urge them to collaborate in this study and
complete the questionnaire.
The usual response rate for postal surveys in Slovenia varies from
10% to 25% (Ruzzier 2005), while research distributed via email gives a
much lower response – as high as 2% at best (Nagy 2013). Given the fact
that our survey has been conducted through email, the response rate was
much lower than the average for postal surveys. Due to the length of the
questionnaire in this study (requiring at least 20 minutes to complete), a
conservative response rate was expected. As aforementioned, the ques-
tionnaire, with a short description of the project and invitation to exec-
utives/environmental managers to collaborate in this study, was emailed
to 6564 companies in total. At the end of the questionnaire, respond-
ents were asked to choose whether they wanted to receive a summary of
the research results, an invitation to the public presentation of the results
or neither. The number of responses received was 223 (a 3.40% response
rate), which was similar to what we expected due to the length of the
erally the top executive was addressed, called the “director” in Slovenia).
They were chosen as respondents because they were considered to be the
most knowledgeable person with respect to the issue of environmental
care in their company. However, if these respondents felt that they were
not the most appropriate informants to complete the survey, we asked
them to pass the questionnaires on to the most appropriate informants in
their companies (a cover letter highlighting the study’s background and
objectives and a link to the survey were included in the email) or to intro-
duce them to us, to finish the survey. Moreover, the respondents were as-
sured of anonymity in reporting results. A variety of industries and com-
pany sizes were included, since the focus of the study is on eco-innovation
in companies, which required us to include companies operating in all in-
dustry sectors, excluding public administration.
134 Data were collected from companies in Slovenia, in collaboration
with an external research company specializing in data collection, which
sent the questionnaire and invitation letter to a total of 6564 email ad-
dresses. The data were collected between November 2014 and January
2015. In the first round, the questionnaire was sent to 864 email address-
es of ecological companies in Slovenia (i.e., companies with environmen-
tal certificates, such as ISO 14001, EMAS or environmental certificates,
environmental prizes as identifies them also Gospodarska Zbornica
Slovenije – Slovenian Chamber of Commerce) as well as to to 5,700 other
email addresses (companies without environmental certificates but that
might implement eco-innovations as well). In total, three reminders were
sent to companies in order to urge them to collaborate in this study and
complete the questionnaire.
The usual response rate for postal surveys in Slovenia varies from
10% to 25% (Ruzzier 2005), while research distributed via email gives a
much lower response – as high as 2% at best (Nagy 2013). Given the fact
that our survey has been conducted through email, the response rate was
much lower than the average for postal surveys. Due to the length of the
questionnaire in this study (requiring at least 20 minutes to complete), a
conservative response rate was expected. As aforementioned, the ques-
tionnaire, with a short description of the project and invitation to exec-
utives/environmental managers to collaborate in this study, was emailed
to 6564 companies in total. At the end of the questionnaire, respond-
ents were asked to choose whether they wanted to receive a summary of
the research results, an invitation to the public presentation of the results
or neither. The number of responses received was 223 (a 3.40% response
rate), which was similar to what we expected due to the length of the
