University Business Research: Questionnaire Development Report

This report presents a comprehensive overview of the questionnaire development process for a business research project focused on Melbourne's boutique restaurants. The research aims to investigate the impact of servicescape, empathy, dining experience, and authenticity perception on customers' behavioral intentions. The report outlines the nine steps of questionnaire development, including defining target respondents, research objectives, and management issues; determining information requirements; deciding on question content; developing question wording and selecting appropriate question types; setting the order and format of questions; determining questionnaire length; pre-testing the questionnaire; and developing the final survey form. The questionnaire, comprising both demographic and non-demographic sections, is designed to gather insights into customer preferences and experiences, employing a mix of open and closed-ended questions with rating scales and open-ended feedback sections. The report emphasizes the importance of a well-structured questionnaire to ensure the reliability of the collected data and provides a detailed account of the questionnaire's structure and content.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Steps of designing questionnaire.................................................................................................2
2.1 Determination of target respondents, management issue and research objective..................2
2.2 Determination of information required..................................................................................3
2.2 Deciding on question content................................................................................................3
2.4 Development of question wording and selection of appropriate type of question................3
2.5 Setting order and format of the questions..............................................................................4
2.6 Length of the questionnaire...................................................................................................5
2.7 Pre-test the questionnaire.......................................................................................................5
2.8 Developing final survey form................................................................................................5
3. Structure of questionnaire............................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7

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REPORT ON SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE DEVELOPMENT
1. Introduction
A research project will be carried out to explore the impact of the factors like
servicescape, empathy, dining experience and authenticity perception of the customers on their
behavioral intentions regarding Melbourne’s boutique restaurants. To conduct the research, a
survey will be carried out and the questionnaire is provided with this report.
2. Steps of designing questionnaire
Crawford (1997) mentioned nine steps of questionnaire development. Firstly, the target
respondents, research objectives and management problem are defined. Secondly, the
information need to be obtained from the survey are determined. Thirdly, the relevant question
content is decided to get the most appropriate information for the study. Fourthly, the wording of
the questions and appropriate question types are chosen such that those reflect the thoughts of the
researcher and the objectives in a most simple and easier to understand manner, so that the
respondents can understand the questions independently. Fifthly, the order and form of the
questions is determined. Sixthly, the length is checked so that the participants do not lose interest
while filling up the form. Seventhly, the questionnaire is pre-tested using a pilot study and in the
next step, based on pre-test findings, the final survey form is developed. Finally, the structure is
explained. These steps are followed while designing the survey questionnaire.
2.1 Determination of target respondents, management issue and research objective
The target respondents are the boutique restaurants’ customers in Melbourne. As the
study aims to explore the behavioral intentions of the customers based on their dining

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experiences in the restaurants, hence, they are the ones who could provide precise insights to
meet the research objectives.
The management problem is to have an idea about what influences the customers to
choose boutique restaurants while dining out and take measures accordingly to increase their
market share. Thus, the research objective is to identify the factors that motivates the customers
to choose boutique restaurants and recommend measures to enhance their value offerings to the
customers.
2.2 Determination of information required
In this case, firstly, required information for the study contained the behavioral intentions
of the customers regarding their dining experiences in Melbourne’s boutique restaurants. Having
a better knowledge about the customer’s behavioral intentions would help these restaurants to
improve their products and services and that would be beneficial for both the businesses as well
as the customers (Namin 2017).
2.2 Deciding on question content
Based on the research objective, the question content consists of servicescape, empathy,
authenticity perception and the dining experience of the customers, which would lead to
divulgence of the behavioral intentions of the customers regarding dining out in the boutique
restaurants in Melbourne.
2.4 Development of question wording and selection of appropriate type of question
Question wordings are selected such that, the interpretation of the questions are easier for
the participants. The motive is to obtain the cooperation from the survey respondents and keep
them filling up the form.

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The survey questionnaire contains both open and close ended questions. The close ended
questions are used to get the opinion of the customers on restaurant ambience, services, food,
menu choices, prices, their overall dining experience and their perceptions while choosing a
restaurant for dine out. 5 point rating scales are used for these close ended questions. These
questions followed the form of matrix. As stated by Liu and Cernat (2018), in the structure of
matrix questions, identical categories of response are assigned to several questions. These
questions are always placed one under the other, which resembles a matrix, with the categories
of responses placed horizontally along the top and the list of the questions placed vertically down
the side. The notations for the 5 point replicable scale vary for some of the questions, such as, for
some questions, 1 denotes strongly disagree, and 5 denotes strongly agree. One of the close
ended questions, that measures the emotional experience and feelings of the customers, is
presented with a continuous scale. The response range for eight different types of emotional
experiences is presented on a scale with values from -3 to +3, from least favorable to the most
favorable.
The open ended questions focus on getting qualitative information from the participants
in terms of their feedback or suggestion for improving the research aspects of the food and
services of the restaurants. These questions are totally unstructured and the participants are
encouraged to provide whatever their suggestions or complaints are in a qualitative or descriptive
manner.
2.5 Setting order and format of the questions
The order and format of a questionnaire is important to make the questionnaire look
attractive and comprehensible to the participants (Taherdoost 2016). In this case, the easy
questions, such as, information about age, gender, income, frequency of restaurant visit etc. are

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put in the beginning, and these do not require much thinking for the participants. The difficult
questions, that is, the ones that make the respondents think about their feelings and experiences
about the food and services of the restaurant come later.
2.6 Length of the questionnaire
The survey questionnaire contains 20 questions. The length is moderate, and convenient
for the participants also, as they would not prefer to spend their time on a large survey form
containing too many questions (Abs.gov.au 2020). Hence, the content has been kept precise
within 20 questions.
2.7 Pre-test the questionnaire
Crawford (1997) mentioned that pilot testing is beneficial for understanding that whether
the questions were achieving the desired outcome for the research and hence the pre-testing of
the survey questions was conducted on the team members and the outcome was satisfactory.
2.8 Developing final survey form
Based on the findings from the pilot study, the final survey questionnaire will be
prepared. For example, in the final survey form, the objective of the study has been included in
the introduction for the convenience of the participants.
3. Structure of questionnaire
The questionnaire is divided into two groups, demographic and non-demographic. The
demographic section is helpful for understanding the socio economic status of the target
respondents. The latter part contains non-demographic questions, which are subject specific. In
this questionnaire, the first five questions are demographic and the latter 15 questions are non-

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demographic. Both these parts are important for a survey to ensure reliability of the information
obtained from appropriate target participants.
The close ended questions are put in the beginning as those would take less time and the
survey ended with four open ended questions that asked for the participants’ feedback to enhance
the product and services of the restaurants.

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References
Abs.gov.au, 2020. Questionnaire Design. [online] Abs.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3310114.nsf/home/Basic+Survey+Design+-
+Questionnaire+Design [Accessed 7 Jan. 2020].
Crawford, I.M., 1997. Marketing research and information systems (No. 4). | Chapter 4:
Questionnaire Design. [online] Fao.org. Available at:
http://www.fao.org/3/w3241e/w3241e05.htm#chapter%204:%20questionnaire%20design
[Accessed 7 Jan. 2020].
Liu, M. and Cernat, A., 2018. Item-by-item versus matrix questions: A web survey
experiment. Social Science Computer Review, 36(6), pp.690-706.
Namin, A., 2017. Revisiting customers' perception of service quality in fast food
restaurants. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 34, pp.70-81.
Taherdoost, H., 2016. How to Design and Create an Effective Survey/Questionnaire; A Step by
Step Guide. International Journal of Academic Research in Management (IJARM), 5(4), pp.37-
41.