Business Surveys

Business data collection methodology: Current state and future outlook

“…Compared to social surveys, business surveys have some unique characteristics that call for special attention because of their impact on accuracy of collected data [1,[3][4][5]. Among these characteristics is the business response process where: (i) the business management, not the surveyor, decides who should respond; (ii) respondents often need to carry out an internal data collection; (iii) survey questions typically require knowledge of work-related concepts; and (iv) data usually have to be retrieved from the business information system [6,7].…”

“…Data on businesses has an enormous impact on our societies. These data serve governments for designing policies and monitoring economic progress; academia for testing theoretical models; organizations representing businesses and businesses for benchmarking, among others [1,2]. Collecting data from businesses on a regular basis is largely in the domain of official statistics with some notable exceptions being, for example, research institutes and non-profit organizations.…”

“…This paper provides a snapshot of what is currently on the agenda in business data collection methodology, exposes new developments as they are happening in the field or influencing the field, and discusses the potential of novel ideas and insights, inspired by presentations and discussions at the 2018 BDCM Workshop. 1 The paper is organized around three big topics: the response burden and process in business surveys (Section 2), reengineering business data collection (Section 3), and contact, communication, and motivation strategies (Section 4). The paper concludes with a discussion of what was learned, where the field is headed, and how this impacts future research (Section 5).…”