Last week, I unleashed my survey, the research cornerstone upon which my dissertation will be built. My concern now is gathering sufficient responses. Within the first week, I had roughly one quarter of my initial target figure. That would appear to fit into my time limit of one month to run the survey, but the initial flood of returns has fast become a trickle.
There are two possible outcomes. One is that I reach my target and can thereby prove, via statistical calculation, that my respondents are acceptably representative of my population. The second is that I don’t and...