Quantitative Methods for International Business

Question 1.
In recent years, Multinational Enterprises' (MNEs) strategies have been increasingly impacted by an accelerating rate of change in the external environment. A research project is carried out to investigate subsidiary performance amidst turbulence in China. Subsidiary performance is expected to be dependent on choices that the MNE makes when responding to environmental turbulence at the subsidiary level.
The researchers collected data from a questionnaire mail survey of senior managers in MNE subsidiaries in China in 2015. They selected 400 foreign subsidiaries from a list of clients or members provided by Shanghai Foreign Service Co., Ltd (SFSC), China International Intellectech Corporation (CIIC), and the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. SFSC and CIIC are leading human resources service providers in China with clients that were MNE subsidiaries including enterprises listed in the Fortune 500. The geographical focus was foreign subsidiaries that have investments in the Yangtze River Delta (Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang). This was chosen because it represented the fastest growing and the most prosperous region during China's transition to a market economy, and one with potentially high variance in terms of environmental turbulence.
The questionnaire was in English and sent to the senior managers of the 400 foreign subsidiaries during the year 2015. 152 responses were received, yielding a response rate of 38%. There are a diverse range of industries in the sample, including petroleum, consumer goods, IT, industrial machinery, consulting, pharmaceuticals and healthcare.
Define the population of the research project. Evaluate the applied sampling strategy and the representativeness of the sample. Propose an alternative sampling strategy and justify its effectiveness.
[20 marks]
The study involved a population of 400 companies under the MNE subsidiaries. The list of companies was provided by Shanghai Foreign Service Co., Ltd (SFSC), China International Intellectech Corporation (CIIC), and the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China; thus, the source of data is reliable. Thus the study population was foreign companies located in the Yangtze River Delta (Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang) region. However, 152 of the 400 companies' questionnaires were received. The study pursued a stratified sampling approach. Under this approach, companies were selected based on their industries (Skimkus, 2022). As a result, the following industries were selected as part of the study; petroleum, consumer goods, IT, industrial machinery, consulting, pharmaceuticals and healthcare. Stratified sampling groups together the constituents of a population into homogenous groups and then randomly make a selection from these groups (Skimkus, 2022). Therefore, companies were selected based on the industries to that they belong. The samples selected are representative of the population since the samples were drawn from the Chinese region that had the most prosperity and growth during the country's transition to a market economy. Besides, a 38 percent response rate is a good representation of the population. Moreover, the sample was drawn from across all the major industries in the region.
An alternative sampling strategy for t...