ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the process of data acquisition, examines the sample bias and reliability, and presents an overview of the sample data. Since growth of knowledge is a macro variable which is constant at any given time in a micro cross sectional analysis, no separate term will be used to measure general knowledge. The sample distribution for computer-electronics industries closely resembles the distribution of the sampling frame across states. Sample percentage distributions for textile-apparel industries in most states are similar to the distributions of the sampling frame. Non-response is one of the most formidable problems in primary data collection. Two types of non-response can be specified. One is a whole observation missing. The other is part of questions left unanswered. Assessment of the reliability of survey data is another crucial step in the research, since data from a questionnaire survey frequently suffer from the casual attitude of respondents.
