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Session Details

The interest in business practices and outcomes is only increasing in the context of the changing data environment. There is a wide range of actors that need first-hand information about the status of the economy, even more so in the context of globalisation, which has modified the business and economic structures, with an impact on value adding chains and employment relations. New information technologies have contributed precisely to speeding up the pace of change but also enabled accessing respondents and information providers in a range of new ways. Bearing this in mind, and while there may be a considerable volume of business data on some specific topics and areas, on other policy fields with no available censuses, registers or mandatory surveys in place, much remains unknown.

Some features of businesses pose particular challenges when it comes to surveying them. The heterogeneity of the business population is one of them, with a great number of micro and small businesses on the one hand, and a small number of very large businesses on the other. The structure of the businesses (single vs multi-site, national vs multi-national etc.) is another aspect to take into account, as well as the availability of business registers, the quality of which is often poor, and inconsistent across countries, activity sectors or size classes. The definition and identification of the adequate respondent or respondents and ensuring their participation are clear challenges in business surveys, which, like other types of surveys, have witnessed a downward trend in response rates in recent years.

This session invites contributions that discuss the issue of response rates and response bias in non-compulsory national and international business surveys. To what extent can these issues be alleviated by considering various modes of contacting and questionnaire administration, and at what cost? What avenues are available for reducing respondent burden, and thereby possibly boosting response rates, by making increased use of administrative data? And what possibilities do administrative data offer for identifying and correcting for response bias? Also, what are the experiences in following-up with non-respondents?

The session aims to bring together researchers, users and practitioners in the area of business surveys, to share their experiences – good or bad – of dealing with these issues.