The study was based on the development
of a self-administered mail survey. First, the
environmental hostility instrument of Zahra and
Neubaum (1998: 131), the instrument of Dess
and Devis (1984: 474) and Miller (1988: 288),
the generic competitive strategies of Porter
(1980: 322-329) and the performance measured
instrument of Beal (2000: 32) were incorporated
into a preliminary questionnaire and were
pre-tested via a series of personal interviews
with the owners or mangers of 12 food
industry firms. Following some refinement, the
instrument contained 36 items in 11 variables.
The questionnaire was mailed to a sample of
210 Thai food industry firms. Sixty four
questionnaires were returned, which were
calculated as 30.5 percent response rate.
This figure is considered acceptable according
to the suggestions by Dennis (2003:284) and
McDougall, et al. (1994: 546).