Both planning formality (Pearce et al., 1987) and functional coverage (Ramanujam and Venkatraman, 1987) were measured with six items. Camillus and Venkatraman (1984) contributed to the formation of the seven questions for the internal and external orientation. Six questions were asked to measure the centralization process (Koufopoulos and Chryssochoidis, 2000). It should be mentioned at this point that these questions were based on a five-point Likert scale. Not applicable (N/A) was also an option for answer to the questions concerning functional coverage. For the planning horizon there were four options to choose from: less than one year, one year, more than one year and less than five, and finally five or more years (Rhyne, 1986). Moreover, executive’s level of satisfaction was measured with 24 questions based on Gerbing et al. (1994). The indicators of financial performance were chosen and measured according to Koufopoulos et al. (2005) except the average occupancy rate which was adopted from Phillips (1999). These indicators were again measured with a five-point Likert scale
based on manager’s perception and not with the actual data of each company. Furthermore, there were three questions asking personal characteristics of the managing directors which concerned their educational background, age and years holding their position in the company.