Tuilsa

Case 9, Tulsa's Central Business District (B)

Question Number 3. Does the questionnaire appear to satisfy the research objective? Why or why not?
Answer:
Yes, the questionnaires appear to satisfy the research objective.
Research objective: The research objectives of this case were as follows- i. To gather information concerning the number of employees working in downtown Tulsa ii. Employees’ salary distributions iii. Proposed future investment in downtown Tulsa iv. Executives’ attitude toward a variety of dimensions of the downtown area
For the purposes of this research, downtown Tulsa was defined as coinciding with census tract 25 and the inner dispersal loop. A mail survey of the chief executives of business firms with in the inner dispersal loop was conducted. The questionnaire appears in the Case Exhibit 9.1.
In this Executive opinion Survey questionnaire, question number 1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 was about Executives’ attitude toward a variety of dimensions of the downtown area. Especially the question number 4, 5, 6 & 9 was very specific about this information. Question number 11,12,13,14,19,20,21,22,23,24 was about proposed future investment in downtown Tulsa. Especially the question number 23, 24 was very specific about this information. Question number 15, 16, were about to gather information concerning the number of employees working in downtown Tulsa. Question number 17, 18 was about Employees’ salary distributions of the downtown area.
To ensure a high response rate, researchers sent an advanced notification letter to all firms selected in the sample, and then a cover letter from the president of the chamber of commerce was included with a questionnaire. A follow-up letter was sent to those firms that did not respond after three weeks and telephone calls to certain key firms that did not respond after six weeks had elapsed. This action made it sure that most of the firms of Tulsa’s Central Business District responded to these questionnaires. The response patterns also shows that there was a good response rate regarding the questionnaire that was send to the different firm’s executives.
Based on the above discussion it can be conclude that the questionnaire appear to satisfy the research objective.

Question no-2: Evaluate the sampling design in this case.

Answer: Few years ago, Tulsa’s CBD was in a state of decline and many major private investments have been made in those years. However, most of these efforts have been made on the basis of intuitive feelings about the CBD. For this reason, there was great need foe information for making decision and continuity of revitalization of the downtown area. One of the research projects was a survey of chief executives of business firms in the CBD. To accumulate the information on the following issues were the purpose of conducting the survey:

i) Number of employees working in the downtown Tulsa ii) The employees’ salary distribution iii) Proposed future investment in downtown Tulsa iv) Executives’ attitudes towards a variety of dimensions of downtown area

Each firm within the CBD was given the opportunity to be in the sample for the purpose of ensuring a representative picture of the executives about the downtown Tulsa. The stratified sampling method was chosen for collecting the information of the firms.

Stratified sampling is a method of random sampling. In stratified sampling, the population is first divided into homogeneous groups, also called strata. Then, elements from each stratum are selected at random according to one of the two ways:

i) The number of elements drawn from each stratum depends on the stratum's size in relation to the entire population; ii) The number of elements sampled from each stratum is not proportionate to the size of the stratum

For conducting the sampling, on the basis of information taken from the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission and a proprietary source listing the square footage of firms in the CBD, the larger firms were identified. The firms were divided into two groups or stratum:

The first stratum consisted of 154 major firms within the inner dispersal loop. This stratum was again broken into two parts:

i) Key Firms: Included the largest 4 firms ii) Other major firms: Included the remaining 114 major firms

In the second stratum, a systematic random sample of the firms was selected from Polk’s City of Tulsa Directory which is a reverse directory. The sample size of this stratum was 218. Thus total sample size became 372.

Each firm of the stratums was sent the questionnaires but 11 were undelivered or otherwise unusable. So, the true sample size was 361.

For the first stratum, 101 questionnaires were filled out and returned. 118 questionnaires of the second stratum were returned after filling properly. In this way, the survey’s response rate yielded to 61%.

An advance notification letter from researchers, then a cover letter from the president of the Chamber of Commerce including a questionnaire was sent to all the selected firms in order to ensure high response rate.

Summary: This case study is done on reconstruction of downtown Tulsa’s Central Business District through a business development planning with the support of public and private entities. It is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area has a region of 916,079 residents projected to reach one million between 2010 and 2012. It was first settled in the 1830s by the Lachapoka Band of Creek Native American tribe. For most of the 20th century, the city held the nickname "Oil Capital of the World" and played a major role as one of the most important hubs for the American oil industry. Tulsa, along with several other cities, claims to be the birthplace of U.S. Route 66.