Exploring Complex Decision Making Units: A New Approach

Though the concept of a multiperson decision making unit (DMU) has been widely accepted in principle, very few empirical studies have surveyed all members of the DMU. In those few studies which have surveyed multiple decision participants, data were collected via "snowball" personal interviews. In a single-stage snowball a known member of the DMU is asked to provide a list of other persons involved in the decision making process. That list is used for a subsequent study. Multiple-stage snowballing involves asking all of the respondents in the first stage who else was in the DMU, then those in the second stage, and so on. Exhaustive snowballing involves continuing the process until no new DMU members are generated. As snowball personal interveiws are an extremely expensive method of collecting data, large-scale DMU research has been financially impractical for most empirical studies. A study of 319 DMUs was designed to assess the feasibility of snowballing by telephone and to ascertain the impact of exhaustive versus single-stage snowballing on the nature of the resultant DMU.