Does the SBA Satisfy the Informational Needs of Small Business
研究调查了小企业管理局（SBA）出版物对读者、提供者和竞争者的信息需求满足情况，发现多数读者认为出版物实用且及时，但超过三分之一认为不够具体，且读者愿意付费但提供者低估了其支付意愿。
Does the SBA Satisfy the Informational Needs of Small Business? The SBA distributes between 300,000 and 1,000,000 publications to readers each quarter. The SBA's office of Management Assistance (MA) recently conducted a study to determine how the MA publications program might be redirected to improve its effectiveness and usefulness in meeting the informational needs of small business owners and managers. Three separate audiences were surveyed: readers of SBA publications, providers of those publications, and organizations that distribute publications that can be used instead of the SBA management assistance publications. For this study, a random sample of 3,000 readers was drawn from those who requested publications from the SBA's Central Distribution Center at Fort Worth during the third quarter of 1983, and another list of 3,000 readers was developed from workshop attendance lists for approximately the same period. In addition, a list of approximately 500 providers was compiled which included all 65 SBA District Offices, SCORE volunteers from each office, Small Business Development Centers, community and junior colleges, four-year colleges and universities, and other organizations that cosponsored workshops with the SBA. Nineteen competitors--organizations that publish informational materials similar to the SBA's--were also surveyed. Three separate questionnaires were sent to each of the three samples. All questionnaires asked for opinions, general levels of satisfaction, suggestions for improvement, and comparisons of MA publications with other information sources. Questionnaires were mailed to readers, but providers and competitors were interviewed by telephone. All questionnaires asked the respondent to indicate his or her degree of interest in some possible new subject areas and to suggest others that were not listed. All respondents were also asked questions about whether readers would be willing to pay for SBA publications, and if so, how much. Readers were asked to indicate the specific publications they received and their purpose in ordering them. Survey Results Several areas of interest lend themselves to analysis as key questions were asked in the course of all three surveys: reader, provider, and competitor. Nearly all readers (92 percent) believed the publications were up-to-date, as did a high percentage of the providers (85 percent) and competitors (70 percent). Few respondents believed the publications were specific--in fact, over one-third of respondents in each category said they were not specific enough, even though virtually all respondents (93-100 percent) found the publications useful and practical. Most respondents felt that the level of writing was appropriate, although nearly 15 percent of readers, as opposed to only 4 percent of providers, found the level of writing too low. Overall satisfaction with SBA publications is also fairly high, though providers are generally more satisfied than either the readers or the competitors, with about 80 percent expressing satisfaction with topics, quality of information, clarity, general presentation, and reading level. In general, about 77 percent of readers and 70 percent of competitors were satisfied with these aspects of MA publications. The readers and providers were asked to specify a reasonable charge for what are now free publications. Surprisingly, providers believe that readers would be willing to pay less than was indicated by the results of the reader survey. Over 70 percent of readers would be willing to pay $.50 to $2.00 for each publication, but only about 40 percent of the providers thought that these charges would be reasonable. Note that the providers typically use the SBA publications as support training materials, while the readers of SBA literature and the readers of competitor publications use the publications to improve personal skills and obtain knowledge. …