GLOBAL GARDEN REPORT 2012 - Husqvarna Group

Appendix c: A word on methodology
This report is comprised of two parts: one
qualitative and one quantitative.
For the qualitatively-oriented research
segment, we have mainly relied on academic,
governmental, professional, as well as
journalistic sources. Materials are listed under
the Recommended Further Reading section
(see: References) When deemed of sufficient
quality, material from individual homepages or
blogs is included as well. We have also received
valuable input from professionals in the field,
their names listed in the References section of
the report.
For the quantitatively-oriented survey
segment, we used web-based panels to contact
roughly 500 urban respondents aged 18 and
older in each of the seven countries that appear
in the report. These respondents where then
asked to fill out a web-based questionnaire
which had been translated into their native
language. In order to qualify as an urban dweller
in this survey, the respondent had to report
56 GLOBAL GARDEN REPORT 2012
living in a city of more than 200 000 inhabitants,
no further from the city center than its outskirts
(in which roughly 10% of the respondents
reported living – the other 90% residing nearer
to the center). The sample has been weighted
based on age-group data gathered from
Eurostat and the US Census Bureau.
It should be noted that online panels are
not always fully representative of a country’s
population at large – for instance, internet
usage tends to vary between age groups.
This is especially the case in countries where
the overall level of internet penetration is
comparatively low. Often, samples in these
countries are somewhat biased towards citizens
with higher education.
Furthermore, it should be mentioned that in
multi-lingual surveys such as this, comparisons
of results between countries should always
be made responsibly, owing to possible
“distortions” produced by translation and
cultural divergence.