Dear Colleague,
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Professor Chi-Guhn Lee. I am currently performing research to help better explain customer behaviour, and to get an understanding of how customers value hybrid electric vehicle technology. To do this I am performing a survey in which your participation would be greatly appreciated. We are interested in responses from a wide variety of individuals such as yourself.
Hybrid vehicles are a relatively new technology; we are aiming to model the process of how word-of-mouth reports, and marketing affect the perception of the value of this technology, and the resulting decisions regarding whether individuals will adopt this new technology or not.
The purpose of the survey is to distinguish whether your household is currently the owner of a hybrid vehicle. If your household is an owner, then we are interested in your thoughts regarding your purchase, and whether you often communicate these thoughts to others either by word-of-mouth, a blog, or by some other means. If your household is not an owner, then we would like to know your perceived value of hybrid technology and whether individuals communicate their thoughts about hybrid vehicles to you.
Our online survey is hosted by surveymonkey.com. Your participation is voluntary, risk free, and by completing the survey you consent that your answers can be used to benefit academic research that may be published and/or presented to the public. Furthermore, if you would like to be entered into a draw for the chance to win one of three gift cards from Petro-Canada valued at $100 each, please provide us with your email address during the survey. We will contact only the winning entrants, and the remaining email addresses will be deleted from our database.
Should you have any concerns, or if you would like a summary of the research results please feel free to contact me at ferreira@mie.utoronto.ca, or (416)-946-0052. If you have any questions regarding your rights as a research participant you can contact the Office of Research Ethics at ethics.review@utoronto.ca, or (416)-946-3273.
Thank you for your time,
Kevin D. Ferreira
PhD Candidate
Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
University of Toronto