Non-farm businesses local economic integration level: the case of six Portuguese small and medium-sized Markettowns• - a sector approach



releases were addressed both local newspapers and radio stations. This proved to be
particularly useful as concerns non-farm businesses for it made contacts between team
members and businessmen a lot easier.

The methodology used in the surveying process was the direct approach, that is, the face-to-
face interviews. In Mirandela, Vila Real, and Lixa, the team members travelled to and from
every day, starting at 8.oo a.m. and returning between 7.oo and 8.00 pm. Eventually, in order
to maximize information collecting team members were allotted different tasks having to
drive two cars. In the three towns, two in Algarve and in Esposende, due to their being far
away from Vila Real, the team had to stay there for some time.

Questionnaires to family households were carried out in several places, namely Town Halls,
Primary and Secondary Schools, and often in firms. Each questionnaire lasted approximately
30 minutes.

Surveying to businesses implied going to each one separately, sometimes by appointment
through telephone call but mostly on a door-to-door approach. Each interview lasted an
average of 20 minutes, depending on the business dimension, but especially on the owners’
willingness to give access to their bookkeeping. In some business firms those responsible saw
no problem in providing us with information concerning their balance sheets. In business
firms where bookkeeping is done by an independent accountancy firm the results of the
interviews tended to slow down the surveying process.

Surveying farm businesses took up a lot of time and a great amount of money. The fact that
farm businesses are much more scattered than non-farm ones made the team depend on the
car to do the questionnaires. Without the precious help of Agriculture Ministry technicians
belonging to the Agrarian Zones of the
concelhos under survey this field work would not have
been possible. In the case of Lixa it is important to point out all the cooperation given by the
Agricultural Cooperative of Felgueiras. Each questionnaire lasted an average of 35 minutes
in the case of farm businesses and 30 minutes in the case of the respective household.

The methodology used was the face-to-face questionnaire in an average of ten questionnaires
a day per researcher. From the beginning of the survey process it was stipulated that
questionnaires not fully filled in would not be usable; therefore, we have no incomplete or
unusable questionnaires. The adopted methodology resulted in fully complete questionnaires.



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