3.22 CONCLUSION
4.4.5 Sample selection
T h e executives chosen as a sample for the questionnaire were selected from indus- tries that are closely related t o the cinema exhibition industry currently and in the past. T h e list of questionnaire respondents consisted of the following:
1. Film distributors. Film distributors are directly affected by the stagnant attendances being experienced in the cinema exhibition industry.
2. T h e cinema exhibitors.
3. A h o m e entertainment company. T h e r e is a direct correlation between cinema ex- hibition performances and that of h o m e entertainment. H o m e entertainment is seen as a competitor to cinema exhibition in South Africa.
4. A music company in South Africa. Music is an alternative entertainment form in South Africa. T h e purchase of music competes with going to the movies as an en- tertainment alternative. T h e music industry has also and is still going through its own changes where the industries business idea has also b e e n tested with the intro- duction of M P 3 players, music downloads etc. This situation is similar to what is facing the cinema exhibition industry.
5. Shopping centre managers. Cinema exhibitors are in m o s t cases the anchor tenant in the shopping centres in which they operate. They occupy very large spaces in the centres, and account for a large percentage of the shopping centres footfall (num- ber of patrons w h o visit the shopping centres). Shopping centre managers are start- ing to question the merits of having cinemas in shopping centres. T h e question is
" D o they provide satisfactory yields (financial returns per squared meters) versus the a m o u n t of space that they occupy?"
6. Property developers. With the n u m b e r of different shopping centres that they build o n a yearly basis, they are very m u c h in tune with w h a t customers require in the form of entertainment. T h e r e is a lot of research that is conducted before a p r o p - erty is developed. This group of people could have interesting perspectives on the shape of cinema exhibition and the factors driving changes in this industry.
7. E x - cinema exhibition executives. This is a group of individuals w h o have at a point in their lives have r u n a company in the cinema industry. They have since left the
industry, and should have strong views of the state of cinema exhibition in South Africa today, and into the future.
8. The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF). This foundations responsibility is to grow local cinema and video production in South Africa. This can only be achieved if local cinema exhibition grows. The NFVF's goals and those of exhibi- tors in South Africa are aligned.
9. Cinema patrons. This group of people determines the shape of the future of the industry.
The researcher identified the most appropriate executives to contact in the sample to facilitate access to their organizations employees. The identified executives were phoned and informed of the questionnaire, and told that a formal letter would be sent from the University of KwaZulu-Natal requesting their participation in the questionnaire. The re- searcher clearly articulated the purpose of the research and that the researcher requested that they facilitate access to their company's senior management team and staff to act as respondents to this study.
The researcher and his supervisor brainstormed an introductory letter. The re- searcher's supervisor on behalf of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, requesting the re- spondents' permission to participate in the research questionnaire, wrote the letter.
The introductory letter contained the following aspects of the research:
• The name of the researcher (who is undertaking the research)
• The purpose of the research
• What is being requested of the respondent
• Who is being asked to participate
• Who would be administering the questionnaire
• What these data will be used for
• That the respondents can have access to these data
• That participation was voluntary
• That the identities of the participants would not be revealed
• That all participating organisations would be given prompt and unrestricted ac- cess to the results of the study, upon request
The identified Executives were the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) and Managing Directors (MD) of Ster Kinekor Cinemas, Nu Metro Distribution, United International Pictures, Ster Kinekor Distribution, Gallo Music, Nu Metro Home Entertainment, Labia cinema, Cine Centre Cinema, Tsogo Sun Gaming, Zenprop Properties, Computicket, Movies@woodlands, Cinemark and the General Managers of the following shopping centres: Hyde Park Shopping, Victoria and Alfred and Canal Walk.
The introductory letters were sent electronically and by posted mail to the Execu- tives.
The Chief Executive Officer of Ster Kinekor refused to participate in the research.
The given reason was as follows:
"We did receive a request to participate in this research project but it is our under- standing that Mr Marumo is an employee of Nu Metro Theatres and as such, and particu- larly the lack of disclosure of this in all the correspondence, we are not willing to complete the questionnaire"
Ferdi Gazendam, CEO Ster Kinekor Cinemas
The researcher managed to get the consent of the remainder of the Executives in the sample with the exception of Ster Kinekor. The executives from Zenprop Properties, Vic- toria and Alfred Shopping centre, Gallo Music, Labia Cinema, and Movies@woodlands did not respond to the request to participate in the questionnaire, and did not form part of the final questionnaire respondents.
In addition to the above executives a generic introductory letter was forwarded to 100 cinema patrons (regular cinema patrons who had been to the movies more than 3 times in the past 12 months (1st of April 2005 to 31st of March 2006). This list of respon- dents was received from Computicket.
Computicket is the online and telephonic booking agent for Nu Metro Theatres.
This list was therefore based on actual tickets purchased through the Computicket online and telephone booking system.
110
The researcher also used the Cinemark Industry Statistics mailing list to formulate a list of respondent e-mail addresses that the questionnaire was forwarded to. Cinemark In- dustry Statistics is a monthly industry report on industry attendance statistics and market shares percentages that are sent to the senior management teams of the companies that were identified as the sample.
4.5 NUMBER O F RESPONDENTS
The total sample for the questionnaire was 180 potential respondents. The total number of completed questionnaires was 114.
4.6 QUESTIONNAIRE ADMINISTRATION
The 33 questionnaire statements were constructed by the researcher from the list of factors identified in the informal interview stage. This questionnaire was then forwarded to a specialist research company for administration. The questionnaire was administered by Consulta Management Consultants (Pty) Ltd t/a Consulta Research. A copy of the ques- tionnaire is attached under Addendum 3, Research tools.
Consulta Research is a specialist marketing and communications research company founded and managed by the former Head of the Department of Marketing at the Univer- sity of Pretoria - Professor Adre Schreuder. Consulta was ideally positioned as an affiliate company of the University of Pretoria's campus company - BE@UP (Pty) Ltd to provide the research management expertise needed for this research. Through the association with BE@UP, Consulta ensured access to expertise, research integrity and a reputation for sci- entific research that is world class.
Consulta Research used a customised internal research system to make the measure- ment instrument (questionnaire) electronically available. The questionnaire was sent to the sample respondents in the form of a bulk email. The researcher forwarded the e-mail ad- dresses to Consulta Research from the sample identified in section 4.3.5.2 and 4.3.5.3.
The questionnaire was completed electronically via the respondent's email and sub- mitted to Consulta Research where it was collected and combined into one database. The list of respondents was automatically loaded into the system and the question- naire/measurement instrument was sent to each respondent via email.
There was no particular method or order in which the questionnaire was sent to the respondents - it was sent randomly per the list of respondents provided by the researcher.
In the second attempt to increase the number of responses, Consulta Research com- bined a number of respondent details in groups identified by employers in the Entertain- ment industry i.e. "Nu Metro Theatres" employees; " Cinemark " employees.
The responses from the respondents appeared in an Excel spreadsheet in the form of a "flat file" (Appendix 6), where each respondent's responses appeared in a separate col- umn per answer/variable.
The number of respondents appeared in rows and the answers/variables appeared in columns.