Methodology for the BOSS Survey and 808 Poll, Spring 2021

BOSS – the Business Outlook and Sentiment Survey – is a statewide survey of business leaders in Hawai‘i. The 808 Poll is a survey of the general public in Hawai‘i.

Both surveys are conducted twice a year for Hawaii Business Magazine by the research team at Anthology Marketing Group.

The BOSS research was conducted using a sample listing of businesses purchased from a third-party business sample provider as well as Hawaii Business Magazine’s Top 250 list and classified business listings.

The sample of business executives was stratified based on the number of employees in their companies. Small businesses are divided into two subgroups: Businesses with two to nine employees are designated as “very small” and those with 10 to 49 employees are designated as “small.” Medium-size companies are those with 50 to 99 employees while companies with 100 or more employees are classified as “large.”

The goal was to complete interviews with executives heading 50 businesses in each of the large and medium sectors, with 300 interviews falling into the two small-business categories. The data was weighted to reflect the proper proportions of each company segment based on the number of employees as reported by the Hawai‘i Department of Labor.

A total of 447 random interviews on all the major islands were conducted from March 22, 2021, to April 7, 2021. A sample of this size has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.0 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

As part of a construction industry survey within the overall BOSS survey, a total of 102 business executives were surveyed who describe their companies as deriving significant proportions of their revenues from the construction industry.

Methodology for 808 Poll

The research team at Anthology Marketing Group conducted an online survey based on a sample of email addresses purchased from a third-party supplier that specializes in such samples for online surveys. This sample was augmented by Anthology’s proprietary panel of respondents who have agreed to take part in surveys.

A total of 503 surveys statewide were completed from April 1 to April 12, 2021. The resulting data was weighted to reflect population estimates of adults 18 and older on each Hawaiian island.

The margin of error for a total sample of this size is plus or minus 4.51 percentage points with a 95% confidence level. Each respondent was screened to ensure they were at least 18 years of age and resided on the island for which they were being contacted.