tant to the principals of microbrewery operations irrespective of the financial performance of the organization. Two hypotheses were tested in relation to research question one·one hypothesis involving principals of ongoing operations and one hypothesis involving former principals of defunct operations. These hypotheses were stated in their null forms in relation to each of the 18 factors that could be expected to be important to microbrewery operators. With respect to principals of ongoing operations, it was hypothesized that evaluations of factor importance would not vary in relation to the financial performance of the operation (item two on the survey questionnaire). With respect to former principals of defunct operations, it was hypothesized that evaluations of factor importance would not vary in relation to the reason for discontinuing operations (desire to quit, bankruptcy, and so forth as delineated in item three on the survey questionnaire).
With respect to research question two, the added dimension was the type of microbrewery operation (item four on the survey questionnaire). The two hypotheses tested in relation to research question one were restated to incorporate the type of microbrewery operation as an additional independent variable. Thus, with respect to principals of ongoing operations, it was hypothesized that evaluations of factor importance would not vary in relation to the financial performance of the operation or in relation to the type of microbrewery operation. With respect to former principals of defunct operations, it was hypothesized that evaluations of factor importance would not vary in relation to the reason for discontinuing operations or with respect to the type of microbrewery operation.
The results of the testing of the two hypotheses related to research question one are presented in Table 1, which may be found on the following page. In Table 1, "Q2" under source refers to item two on the...