The empirical part of the study is based largely on a mailed questionnaire survey of a sample of members of the US-based
Institute for Supply Management (formerly the National Association of Purchasing Management). This is an association of
purchasing/supply chain managers from organizations of all sizes, private and public. The stated goals of the organization are to lead supply management through “standards of excellence, research, promotional activities, and education”. The Institute supplied our research team with access to a large sample of their members, approximately 1400 individual firms,9 from which we obtained 138 usable responses to the questionnaire. The questionnaire was mailed to the sample of ISM members in September of 2005. A stamped return envelope and cover letter were included with the questionnaire. The cover letter explained that the survey was to be used for academic purposes and not as an official project of the ISM. A follow-up email message was sent to most of the non-respondents, since e-mail addresses were available for approximately 92% of them. By the end of November, 2005, 138 usable responses had been received. T-tests for differences in means between the sample and the overall membership of the ISM showed no significant differences in firm size (sales), net income, equity, or total assets.
The firms range from small to large, young and old, mostly manufacturing firms but also in services and extractive industries.Table 1 presents an overview of the company characteristics.