Sampling Methodology Used for the Global Connections Survey (GCS) in 2004
The survey sample was extracted from the Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR) and included all industries with the exception of public administration, private households with employed persons and extra-territorial organisations. Sampling took place at reporting unit level and reporting units were asked to provided information on the combined Scottish activity of all their local units.
The sample was stratified by industry (4 digit SIC) and 5 employment size-bands (Scottish employment). There were 4,016 known and potential exporters identified using information provided by Highland's & Islands Enterprise (HIE), participating Local Enterprise Companies (LECs) and GCS 2003 survey data. Known and potential exporters were weighted in order to have a greater chance of being sampled than non-exporters or companies whose export status was unknown. Companies were then selected at random from the strata. Those with 100 or more employees were automatically sampled regardless of their export status and all known/potential exporting companies were sampled regardless of their size. This resulted in a sample of 11,031 reporting units, covering 34,711 Scottish local units.
A total of 3,836 survey responses were received (including nil responses) to give a response rate of 35 per cent. An additional 460 returned forms contained no information and have been discounted.