This is a copy of the actual paper survey that we mailed to business owners. An electronic version of the survey was also provided through Qualtrics, but the vast majority of respondents (89%) used the paper form. 

We administered a paper survey through U.S. mail in spring 2023 using a four-wave design informed by Don Dillman’s Tailored Design Method. To create our mailing list, a simple random sample of 1,500 Minnesota business presidents, CEOs, and owners of businesses with 5–500 employees was conducted using data purchased from Data Axle. Agricultural producers and for-profit education firms were excluded from our survey.

Nearly 300 valid responses were received from small business owners and leaders in Minnesota. Most respondents had the joint role of owner and senior leaders (84.6%), but some were only leaders (10.1%) or only owners (3.8%). 

This article summarizes the results of a literature review conducted in December 2022. As part of our work, we analyzed previous BST research to better understand trends in the field and key findings from other researchers. These insights helped us make informed decisions about how to design our own survey. We placed a special emphasis on employee ownership to enable our survey research to explore this aspect of BST in Minnesota.