Corporate sustainability and firm characteristics. Corporate sustainability refers to business practices designed around social and environmental considerations (e.g., “going green”). Business and Society (March 2011) published a paper on how firm size and firm type impact sustainability behaviors. The researchers added questions on sustainability to a quarterly survey of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). The survey was sent to approximately 23,500 senior managers at CPA firms, of which 1,293 senior managers responded. (Note: It is not clear how the 23,500 senior managers were selected.) Due to missing data (incomplete survey answers), only 992 surveys were analyzed. These data were used to infer whether larger firms are more likely to report sustainability policies than smaller firms and whether public firms are more likely to report sustainability policies than private firms.

a. Identify the population of interest to the researchers.

b. What method was used to collect the sample data?

c. Comment on the representativeness of the sample.

d. How will your answer to part c impact the validity of the inferences drawn from the study?