Future of Business Survey 2016-2018 - Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh...and 38 more

Abstract
---------------------------

The Future of Business Survey is a new source of information on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Launched in February 2016, the monthly survey - a partnership between Facebook, OECD, and The World Bank - provides a timely pulse on the economic environment in which businesses operate and who those businesses are to help inform decision-making at all levels and to deliver insights that can help businesses grow. The Future of Business Survey provides a perspective from newer and long-standing digitalized businesses and provides a unique window into a new mobilized economy.

Policymakers, researchers and businesses share a common interest in the environment in which SMEs operate, as well their outlook on the future, not least because young and innovative SMEs in particular are often an important source of considerable economic and employment growth. Better insights and timely information about SMEs improve our understanding of economic trends, and can provide new insights that can further stimulate and help these businesses grow.

To help provide these insights, Facebook, OECD and The World Bank have collaborated to develop a monthly survey that attempts to improve our understanding of SMEs in a timely and forward-looking manner. The three organizations share a desire to create new ways to hear from businesses and help them succeed in the emerging digitally-connected economy. The shared goal is to help policymakers, researchers, and businesses better understand business sentiment, and to leverage a digital platform to provide a unique source of information to complement existing indicators.

With more businesses leveraging online tools each day, the survey provides a lens into a new mobilized, digital economy and, in particular, insights on the actors: a relatively unmeasured community worthy of deeper consideration and considerable policy interest.

Geographic coverage
---------------------------

When the survey was initially launched in February 2016, it included 22 countries. When the survey was initially launched in February 2016, it included 22 countries. The Future of Business Survey is now conducted in over 90 countries in every region of the world.

Analysis unit
---------------------------

The study describes small and medium-sized enterprises.

Universe
---------------------------

The target population consists of SMEs that have an active Facebook business Page and include both newer and longer-standing businesses, spanning across a variety of sectors. With more businesses leveraging online tools each day, the survey provides a lens into a new mobilized, digital economy and, in particular, insights on the actors: a relatively unmeasured community worthy of deeper consideration and considerable policy interest.

Kind of data
---------------------------

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure
---------------------------

Twice a year in over 97 countries, the Facebook Survey Team sends the Future of Business to admins and owners of Facebook-designated small business pages. When we share data from this survey, we anonymize responses to all survey questions and only share country-level data publicly. To achieve better representation of the broader small business population, we also weight our results based on known characteristics of the Facebook Page admin population.

A random sample of firms, representing the target population in each country, is selected to respond to the Future of Business Survey each month.

Mode of data collection
---------------------------

Internet [int]

Research instrument
---------------------------

The survey includes questions about perceptions of current and future economic activity, challenges, business characteristics and strategy. Custom modules include questions related to regulation, access to finance, digital payments, and digital skills. The full questionnaire is available for download.

The questionnaire was pretested by the target audience, as well as experts from the area of research interest. Additionally, steps were taken to translate the survey in order to reduce sensitivities to cultural response bias:
- Respondents were given the option to respond to the survey in any of fifteen languages native to the countries in which it was conducted.
- Translations were done only by native speakers, with two rounds of additional online checks in the context of the survey environment.
- Translators were provided with context material for this survey (e.g., the Facebook for Business website) in order to understand the context of the survey. They were also instructed to take the English survey at least two times before starting with the translations.
- Translations were discussed in a group in order to ensure a common understanding of questions and items.
- The tone (formal vs. informal) of the survey was based on cultural conventions, e.g., Facebook usually uses an informal tone, while in cultures such as the Japanese this is very uncommon and thus a formal tone was used there.

Response rate
---------------------------

Response rates to online surveys vary widely depending on a number of factors including survey length, region, strength of the relationship with invitees, incentive mechanisms, invite copy, interest of respondents in the topic and survey design.

Note: Response rates are calculated as the number of respondents who completed the survey divided by the total number of SMEs invited.

Sampling error estimates
---------------------------

Any survey data is prone to several forms of error and biases that need to be considered to understand how closely the results reflect the intended population. In particular, the following components of the total survey error are noteworthy:

Sampling error is a natural characteristic of every survey based on samples and reflects the uncertainty in any survey result that is attributable to the fact that not the whole population is surveyed.

Other factors beyond sampling error that contribute to such potential differences are frame or coverage error (sampling frame of page owners does not include all relevant businesses but also may include individuals that don't represent businesses), and nonresponse error.

Note that the sample is meant to reflect the population of businesses on Facebook, not the population of small businesses in general. This group of digitized SMEs is itself a community worthy of deeper consideration and of considerable policy interest. However, care should be taken when extrapolating to the population of SMEs in general. Moreover, future work should evaluate the external validity of the sample. Particularly, respondents should be compared to the broader population of SMEs on Facebook, and the economy as a whole.

摘要
---------------------------

《商业未来调查》是一项关于小型和中型企业（SMEs）的新信息来源。自2016年2月启动以来，这项每月进行的调查——由Facebook、经合组织（OECD）和世界银行共同发起——及时地反映了企业运营的经济环境以及企业的性质，旨在协助各级决策者并揭示有助于企业成长的洞见。《商业未来调查》提供了对新兴数字化企业的视角，并为一扇洞察新兴动员型经济的独特窗口。

政策制定者、研究人员和企业对SMEs运营的环境以及他们对未来的展望具有共同兴趣，特别是年轻而创新型的SMEs，它们往往是经济和就业增长的重要来源。对SMEs的深入了解和及时信息有助于我们理解经济趋势，并能提供新的洞见，进一步激发并协助这些企业成长。

为了提供这些洞见，Facebook、OECD和世界银行合作开发了一项每月调查，旨在及时且前瞻性地提升我们对SMEs的理解。三个机构共同追求的目标是创造新的途径，以倾听企业声音并协助他们在新兴的数字化互联经济中取得成功。共同目标是帮助政策制定者、研究人员和企业更好地理解商业情绪，并利用数字平台提供独特的情报资源，以补充现有指标。

随着越来越多的企业利用在线工具，该调查提供了一扇洞察新兴动员型、数字经济的窗口，尤其是对参与者——一个相对未充分测量的、值得深入思考和高度政策关注的社区——的见解。

地理覆盖范围
---------------------------

当调查最初于2016年2月启动时，它包括了22个国家。目前，《商业未来调查》在全球各地区的90多个国家进行。

分析单位
---------------------------

本研究描述了小型和中型企业。

总体
---------------------------

目标总体包括拥有活跃Facebook商业页面的新兴和长期业务，涵盖各种行业。随着越来越多的企业利用在线工具，该调查提供了一扇洞察新兴动员型、数字经济的窗口，尤其是对参与者——一个相对未充分测量的、值得深入思考和高度政策关注的社区——的见解。

数据类型
---------------------------

样本调查数据 [ssd]

抽样程序
---------------------------

在超过97个国家，Facebook调查团队每半年向指定的中小企业页面管理员和所有者发送《商业未来调查》。当我们分享调查数据时，我们将所有调查问题的回复匿名化，并仅公开国家层面的数据。为了更好地代表更广泛的中小企业群体，我们还根据已知的Facebook页面管理员人口特征加权我们的结果。

每月从每个国家的目标总体中随机选取一家企业，以回应《商业未来调查》。

数据收集方式
---------------------------

互联网 [int]

调查工具
---------------------------

调查包括关于对当前和未来经济活动、挑战、企业特征和战略的看法的问题。定制模块包括与监管、融资渠道、数字支付和数字技能相关的问题。完整的问卷可供下载。

问卷由目标受众以及研究兴趣领域的专家进行预测试。此外，还采取了翻译调查的步骤，以减少对文化反应偏见的敏感性：
- 受访者可以选择使用在其进行调查的国家的十五种本土语言中的任何一种来回答调查。
- 翻译仅由母语人士完成，并在调查环境中进行两轮额外的在线检查。
- 翻译者获得了本调查的背景材料（例如，Facebook商业网站），以便了解调查的背景。他们还被要求在开始翻译之前至少两次参加英语调查。
- 在小组中讨论了翻译，以确保对问题和项目的共同理解。
- 调查的语调（正式或非正式）基于文化惯例，例如，Facebook通常使用非正式语调，而在像日本这样的文化中，这非常不常见，因此在该地区使用了正式语调。

响应率
---------------------------

在线调查的响应率因多种因素而异，包括调查长度、地区、与被邀请人关系的强度、激励机制、邀请副本、受访者对主题的兴趣以及调查设计。

注意：响应率按完成调查的受访者人数除以被邀请的SMEs总数计算。

抽样误差估计
---------------------------

任何基于样本的调查数据都容易受到多种形式误差和偏差的影响，需要考虑以理解结果与目标总体之间的接近程度。特别是，以下调查误差组成部分值得关注：

抽样误差是每个基于样本的调查的自然特性，反映了任何调查结果的不确定性，这种不确定性归因于没有对整个总体进行调查。

导致这种潜在差异的其他因素还包括框架或覆盖范围误差（页面所有者的抽样框架不包括所有相关企业，但也可能包括不代表企业的个人），以及非响应误差。

请注意，样本旨在反映Facebook上的企业总体，而不是一般中小企业总体。这个数字化SME群体本身就是一个值得深入思考和高度政策关注的社区。然而，在将结果外推至一般SMEs总体时，应谨慎行事。此外，未来的工作应评估样本的外部效度。特别是，受访者应与Facebook上更广泛的SMEs总体以及整个经济进行比较。]