Enterprise Survey 2013
Belarus, 2012 - 2013
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BLR_2013_ES_v01_M
Enterprise Survey 2013
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Belarus | BLR |
Enterprise Survey [en/oth]
Firm-level surveys have been conducted since 1998 by different units within the World Bank. Since 2005-06, most data collection efforts have been centralized within the Enterprise Analysis Unit. Earlier data from different survey instruments have been matched to an older standard instrument for dissemination on the website.
The Enterprise Surveys, implemented in Eastern Europe and Central Asia countries, also known as Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Surveys (BEEPS), are jointly conducted by the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for this geographic region. The objective of the research is to gain an understanding of firms' perception of the environment in which they operate. The surveys were until now administered four times at an interval of three years. This has added an important element of dynamics in the study of business environment in transition countries.
In Belarus, data from 360 establishments was analyzed. Stratified random sampling was used to select the surveyed businesses.
The survey topics include firm characteristics, information about sales and suppliers, competition, infrastructure services, judiciary and law enforcement collaboration, security, government policies, laws and regulations, financing, overall business environment, bribery, capacity utilization, performance and investment activities, and workforce composition.
In 2011, the innovation module was added to the standard set of Enterprise Surveys questionnaires to examine in detail how introduction of new products and practices influence firms' performance and management.
Sample survey data [ssd]
The primary sampling unit of the study is the establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.
Version
v01
2013
Scope
The scope of the study includes:
- Characteristics of Establishment;
- Infrastructure and Services;
- Sales and Supplies;
- Degree of Competition;
- Innovation;
- Land and Permits;
- Crime;
- Finance;
- Business-Government Relations;
- Use of Consulting Services;
- Labor;
- Business Environment;
- Performance;
- Expectations;
- Perceptions of Obstacles.
Coverage
National
Regions covered are selected based on the number of establishments, contribution to employment, and value added. In most cases these regions are metropolitan areas and reflect the largest centers of economic activity in a country.
The manufacturing and services sectors are the primary business sectors of interest. This corresponds to firms classified with International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) codes 15-37, 45, 50-52, 55, 60-64, and 72 (ISIC Rev.3.1). Formal (registered) companies with five or more employees are targeted for interview. Services firms include construction, retail, wholesale, hotels, restaurants, transport, storage, communications, and IT. Firms with 100% government/state ownership are not eligible to participate in Enterprise Surveys.
Producers and sponsors
| Name |
|---|
| World Bank |
| European Bank for Reconstruction and Development |
| Name |
|---|
| World Bank |
| European Bank for Reconstruction and Development |
Sampling
The sample for Belarus was selected using stratified random sampling technique. Three levels of stratification were used in Belarus: industry, establishment size, and region.
Industry stratification was designed in the way that follows: the universe was stratified into one manufacturing industry, and two service industries (retail, and other services).
Size stratification was defined following the standardized definition for the rollout: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (more than 99 employees). For stratification purposes, the number of employees was defined on the basis of reported permanent full-time workers. This seems to be an appropriate definition of the labor force since seasonal/casual/part-time employment is not a common practice, except in the sectors of construction and agriculture.
Regional stratification was defined in seven regions (city and the surrounding business area) throughout Belarus.
Given the stratified design, sample frames containing a complete and updated list of establishments for the selected regions were required. Great efforts were made to obtain the best source for these listings. However, the quality of the sample frames was not optimal and, therefore, some adjustments were needed to correct for the presence of ineligible units. These adjustments are reflected in the weights computation.
IPSOS was hired to implement the Belarus 2013 enterprise survey. There were local subcontractors in each of the seven regions surveyed.
The sample frame used for the survey in Belarus was from the Registr Belarus Redakt database.
The enumerated establishments were then used as the frame for the selection of a sample with the aim of obtaining interviews at 360 establishments with five or more employees.
The quality of the frame was assessed at the onset of the project through visits to a random subset of firms and local contractor knowledge. The sample frame was not immune from the typical problems found in establishment surveys: positive rates of non-eligibility, repetition, non-existent units, etc. Given the impact that non-eligible units included in the sample universe may have on the results, adjustments may be needed when computing the appropriate weights for individual observations. The percentage of confirmed non-eligible units as a proportion of the total number of sampled establishments contacted for the survey was 5.9% (48 out of 816 establishments).
In the database there are two establishment identifiers - idstd and id. The first is a global unique identifier. The second is a country unique identifier. The variables a2 (sampling region), a6a (sampling establishment's size), and a4a (sampling sector) contain the establishment's classification into the strata chosen for each country using information from the sample frame. Variable a4a coded using ISIC Rev 3.1 codes for the chosen industries for stratification. These codes include most manufacturing industries (15 to 37), retail (52), and (45, 50, 51, 55, 60-64, 72) for other services.
The number of realized interviews per contacted establishments was 0.44. This number is the result of two factors: explicit refusals to participate in the survey, as reflected by the rate of rejection (which includes rejections of the screener and the main survey) and the quality of the sample frame, as represented by the presence of ineligible units. The number of rejections per contact was 0.46.
Complete information regarding the sampling methodology, sample frame, weights, response rates, and implementation can be found in "Description of Belarus ES Implementation 2013" in Related Materials.
For some units it was impossible to determine eligibility because the contact was not successfully completed. Consequently, different assumptions as to their eligibility result in different universe cells' adjustments and in different sampling weights. Three sets of assumptions were considered:
a- Strict assumption: eligible establishments are only those for which it was possible to directly determine eligibility. The resulting weights are included in the variable wstrict.
b- Median assumption: eligible establishments are those for which it was possible to directly determine eligibility and those that rejected the screener questionnaire or an answering machine or fax was the only response. The resulting weights are included in the variable wmedian. Median weights are used for computing indicators on the www.enterprisesurveys.org website.
c- Weak assumption: in addition to the establishments included in points a and b, all establishments for which it was not possible to finalize a contact are assumed eligible. This includes establishments with dead or out of service phone lines, establishments that never answered the phone, and establishments with incorrect addresses for which it was impossible to find a new address. The resulting weights are included in the variable wweak. Note that under the weak assumption only observed non-eligible units are excluded from universe projections.
Survey instrument
The structure of the data base reflects the fact that 3 different versions of the questionnaire were used. The basic questionnaire, the Core Module, includes all common questions asked to all establishments from all sectors. The second expanded variation, the Manufacturing Questionnaire, is built upon the Core Module and adds some specific questions relevant to manufacturing sectors. The third expanded variation, the Retail Questionnaire, is also built upon the Core Module and adds to the core specific questions relevant to retail firms. Each variation of the questionnaire is identified by the index variable, a0.
All variables are named using, first, the letter of each section and, second, the number of the variable within the section, i.e. a1 denotes section A, question 1. Variable names proceeded by a prefix "ECA" indicate questions specific to the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, therefore, they may not be found in the implementation of the rollout in other countries. All other suffixed variables are global and are present in all country surveys over the world. All variables are numeric with the exception of those variables with an "x" at the end of their names. The suffix "x" denotes that the variable is alpha-numeric.
The innovation module questionnaires were introduced in 2011. They cover such topics as product, process, marketing and organization innovations, research and development, acquisition of external knowledge and use of computers, protection of innovation, management practices, and interaction with the state and public-private partnerships.
Data collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2012-07 | 2013-08 |
| Name |
|---|
| IPSOS |
Complete information regarding the sampling methodology, sample frame, weights, response rates, and implementation can be found in "Description of Belarus ES Implementation 2013" in Related Materials.
Private contractors conduct the Enterprise Surveys on behalf of the World Bank. Due to sensitive survey questions addressing business-government relations and corruption-related topics, private contractors are preferred over any government agency or an organization associated with government, and are hired by the World Bank to collect the data.
The Enterprise Surveys are implemented following a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, a screener questionnaire is applied over the phone to determine eligibility and to make appointments; in the second stage, a face-to-face interview takes place with the Manager/Owner/Director of each establishment. 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.
All Enterprise Surveys are conducted in the local languages.
Complete information regarding the sampling methodology, sample frame, weights, response rates, and implementation can be found in "Description of Belarus ES Implementation 2013" in Related Materials.
Data processing
Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.
Data Access
| Is signing of a confidentiality declaration required? | Confidentiality declaration text |
|---|---|
| yes | 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. |
The use of this dataset must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:
- the identification of the Primary Investigator (including country name)
- the full title of the survey and its acronym (when available), and the year(s) of implementation
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download (for datasets disseminated online)
Example:
The World Bank, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Belarus Enterprise Survey (ES) 2013, Ref. BLR_2013_ES_v01_M. Dataset downloaded from [URL] on [date].
Disclaimer and copyrights
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.
Contacts
| enterprisesurveys@worldbank.org |
Metadata production
DDI_BLR_2013_ES_v01_M_WB
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Development Data Group | World Bank | DDI Documentation |
2013-10-17
Metadata version
Version 01