Current Projects

The Enterprise Analysis Unit of the World Bank is currently gathering data in 38 countries around the world. The table indicates the countries in which current survey endeavors are taking place. For each country, the type of survey, project phase, and estimated date of data delivery are provided. Types of surveys include the standard Enterprise Survey along with Indicator, Micro, and Informal surveys. Project phases include the initial process of Procurement, the subsequent process of Fieldwork, and the final process of Data Standardization. See definitions below.

Enterprise Surveys is excited to launch a new partnership with the Department for International Development (DFID), the UK aid agency. In 2012, DFID will be co-funding surveys in South Asia and 15 African countries. DFID’s interests include both enlarging the survey respondent samples to include more female-managed firms as well as expanding the topic of private sector innovation.

*Definitions:

Enterprise Survey
An Enterprise Survey is a survey of firms that is meant to be representative of a country's non-agricultural economy. The sectors of business activity, using ISIC revision 3.1, include manufacturing (group D), construction (group F), services (groups G and H), transport, storage, and communications (group I), and IT which is subgroup 72 of group K. Firms with less than five employees are not surveyed. Interviews are conducted using the Core questionnaire, Core + Manufacturing module, or the Core + Retail module.

Indicator Survey
An Indicator Survey is similar to an Enterprise Survey. For smaller economies, the sampling strategies inherent in an Enterprise Survey are often not applicable due to the limited universe of firms. An Indicator Survey targets the manufacturing and services sectors and the survey instrument is limited to just those questions which form the basis of the global indicators as presented on the Enterprise Surveys website.

Micro Survey
A Micro Survey uses the Core questionnaire from the Enterprise Survey and targets manufacturing and services firms with less than five employees (microenterprises).

Informal Survey
An Informal Survey uses a survey instrument designed for informal firms, i.e., unregistered businesses. For a given country, the business activity of interest varies according to the goals of policy makers.

Financial Crisis Assessment Survey
A Financial Crisis Assessment Survey is fielded to selected firms every 6 months. The goal of the survey is to assess the impact of the global financial crisis of 2008/2009 on firms regarding key microeconomic variables such as access to finance, employment and sales.

Management, Organization, and Innovation Survey
A Management, Organization, and Innovation Survey is similar to an Enterprise Survey but also focuses on issues regarding management structure and firm behavior regarding competition and innovation.

Procurement
Procurement refers to the initial project phase where through the World Bank procurement system, private contractors can competitively bid to be awarded the contract. Typically market research firms are awarded the contract to conduct Fieldwork for the project.

Fieldwork
Fieldwork refers to the project phase where face-to-face interviews are being conducted in the field. Business managers are interviewed and survey data is entered into databases. During fieldwork, batches of data are sent to the Enterprise Analysis team as part of the quality control process. After completion of fieldwork, the data will be delivered to the Enterprise Analysis team for Data Standardization.

Data Standardization
Data Standardization refers to the final project phase where the Enterprise Analysis team is imposing the final quality control checks on the data and also standardizing the data so that cross country comparisons can be easily performed.