Supporting Efficient Private Economic Activity
World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES) are nationally representative firm-level surveys that cover a broad range of business environment topics as well as firms' characteristics and performance measures. The World Bank Enterprise Analysis Unit draws upon this firm-level data to produce research on the microeconomic foundations of growth.
WBES findings and recommendations help policymakers identify, prioritize, and implement reforms of policies and institutions that support efficient private economic activity. Key research topics include firm performance and job creation, legal gender parity for entrepreneurs and workers, informality, and export performance.
The World Bank has partnered with Kapa Research to conduct enterprise surveys in economies in North and South America, Europe, and beyond.
WBES projects currently managed by Kapa Research
Bosnia and Herzegovina
360 Firms
Bulgaria
720 Firms
Canada
1,350 Firms
Colombia
920 Firms
Croatia
480 Firms
Czech Republic
480 Firms
Estonia
360 Firms
Greece
600 Firms
Hungary
870 Firms
Latvia
360 Firms
Montenegro
150 Firms
North Macedonia
360 Firms
Paraguay
385 Firms
Poland
1,200 Firms
Portugal
1,000 Firms
Romania
960 Firms
Slovak Republic
480 Firms
United Kingdom
1,440 Firms
WBES Methodology
Confidentiality
Confidentiality of the survey respondents and the sensitive information they provide is necessary to ensure the greatest degree of survey participation, integrity and confidence in the quality of the data. Surveys are usually carried out in cooperation with business organizations and government agencies promoting job creation and economic growth, but confidentiality is never compromised.
Respondents
The Enterprise Survey is answered by business owners and top managers. Sometimes the survey respondent calls company accountants and human resource managers into the interview to answer questions in the sales and labor sections of the survey. Typically 1200-1800 interviews are conducted in larger economies, 360 interviews are conducted in medium-sized economies, and for smaller economies, 150 interviews take place.
Eligibility
The manufacturing and services sectors are the primary business sectors of interest. This corresponds to firms classified with ISIC codes 10-33, 41-43, 45-47, 49-53, 55-56, 58, 61-62, 69-75, 79, and 95 (ISIC Rev.4). Formal (registered) companies with 5 or more employees are targeted for interview.
Services firms include construction, retail, wholesale, hotels, restaurants, transport, storage, communications, professional services, and IT*. Firms with 100% government/state ownership are not eligible to participate in an Enterprise Survey. Occasionally, for a few surveyed economies, other sectors are included in the companies surveyed such as education or health-related businesses. In each economy, businesses in the cities/regions of major economic activity are interviewed.
Survey Structure
The Enterprise Surveys Unit uses two instruments: the Manufacturing Questionnaire and the Services Questionnaire. Although many questions overlap, some are only applicable to one type of business. For example, retail firms are not asked about production and nonproduction workers.
The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures.
Over 90% of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a economy’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance. The mode of data collection is face-to-face interviews.