Data Collection

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A questionnaire was designed (in Arabic) to gather perceptual data on the study variables from the managers. Forty-three questions were used to gather data on top management support, IS maturity, user involvement, user information satisfaction, and system use in improving decision making. These five variables were measured using 5-point measuring scales. In addition, eleven questions were used to gather general information as well as data on the nine contingency variables. Overall, the instrument included 54 items arranged in six major sections. The questionnaire includes scales that were adopted in earlier studies and considered to have high content validity (Yap, Soh, & Raman, 1992). Earlier versions of the instrument were piloted, using a number of faculty members and MBA students at Alexandria University, Egypt, and revised before the final version was formulated.

Data was collected from the participating managers using the directed interview method. To maintain consistency, only one of the researchers took the responsibility of scheduling and conducting the interviews at the managers' sites. In each interview, the researcher helped clarify any misunderstandings that the manager had while responding to the questionnaire. Due to the data collection method employed in this study and the difficulties encountered in scheduling and rescheduling the interviews, the data collection phase lasted approximately 20 months and was completed late 1999.

The reliability of the multi-item scale in this questionnaire was determined by using the Cronbach alpha test, which measures internal consistency (Table 2). The overall alpha level for the instrument was 0.95, and it was higher than 0.80 for each variable, which is the recommended minimum acceptable level for reliability in basic research (Ives & Olson, 1984).

Table 2: Internal Reliability of the Questionnaire Items.

Variable name	Number of items	Alpha reliability
User information satisfaction	13	.93
System use in improving decision making	7	.90
Top management support	6	.88
IS maturity	10	.92
User involvement	7	.88
Overall	43	.95

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