This paper examines how Italian firms responded to the questionnaire circulated within the second round of the ‘Community Innovation Survey' - specifically concerned with technological innovation in the service sector -, while pointing out some differences existing between the questionnaire circulated in Italy and the questionnaire circulated in other countries. Such an analysis gives rise to two main results: on the one hand one can understand some of the difficulties encountered by respondent firms, while on the other hand some hints on possible questionnaire improvements can be obtained.