Business Practices in Small Firms in Developing Countries 2008-2014

Chile, Ghana, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Nigeria, 2008 - 2014

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Reference ID

WLD_2008-2014_BPSFDC_v01_M

DOI

https://doi.org/10.48529/ter4-1c33

Producer(s)

David McKenzie, Christopher Woodruff

Collection(s)

Development Research Microdata Fragility, Conflict and Violence

Metadata

Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON

Created on

Mar 15, 2016

Last modified

Apr 26, 2021

Page views

43597

Downloads

13311

Identification

Survey ID number

WLD_2008-2014_BPSFDC_v01_M

Title

Business Practices in Small Firms in Developing Countries 2008-2014

Country/Economy

Name	Country code
Chile	CHL
Ghana	GHA
Kenya	KEN
Sri Lanka	LKA
Mexico	MEX
Nigeria	NGA

Study type

Enterprise Survey

Abstract

The dataset documented here contains information from surveys of micro and small enterprises conducted in Bangladesh, Chile, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka between 2008 and 2014. Researchers from the World Bank and the University of Warwick developed a survey instrument with 26 questions that measured business practices in marketing, stock-keeping, record-keeping, and financial planning. The goal of the research was to examine the relationship between management practices and firm outcomes.

The surveys samples varied in their representativeness and size, because they were in most cases conducted as part of impact evaluations of particular programs. The surveys conducted in Bangladesh, Kenya, Mexico, and Sri Lanka provided representative samples of firms of particular size cutoffs, while those in Ghana and Nigeria came from applicants to business plan competitions. The Chile survey was administered to a sample of applicants to a government microenterprise training program.

Kind of Data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Unit of Analysis

Firm

Scope

Notes

The scope of the study includes:

marketing practices
buying and stock control practices
costing and record-keeping practices
financial planning practices

Coverage

Geographic Coverage

Bangladesh, Chile, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators

Name	Affiliation
David McKenzie	World Bank
Christopher Woodruff	University of Warwick

Funding Agency/Sponsor

Name	Role
Knowledge for Change Trust Fund	Funder

Sampling

Sampling Procedure

The samples were all drawn for purposes other than testing the business practices instrument, and some were selected to reflect very specific sub-populations of interest for particular studies. They range from female-owned subsistence enterprises to a sample of highly-educated owners applying to a business plan competition. But while the samples were not formally designed to be representative of micro- and small-scale enterprises in each country, collectively they reflect the ranges of enterprises in low- and middle-income countries.

Detailed information about sampling in each of the seven countries can be found in "Business Practices in Small Firms in Developing Countries" report (p.23-25), available in external resources.

Survey instrument

Questionnaires

Researches developed a set of 26 questions that measured key business practices used in the day-to-day running of small businesses. These questions were motivated by the content of the International Labour Organization (ILO’s) "Improve Your Business" training curriculum, which covered marketing, buying and stock control, costing and record-keeping, and financial planning.

Examples of business practice questions asked in this study are provided in Bangladesh Formal and Informal Enterprise Survey (Section 7, starting page 17) and Sri-Lanka Female Enterprise Survey (Section 9, starting page 18). Both surveys are published as external resources.

Data collection

Dates of Data Collection

Start	End
2008	2014

Depositor information

Depositor

Name	Affiliation
DECRG: Finance & Priv Sec Devt	World Bank

Data Access

Citation requirements

Use of the dataset must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:

the Identification of the Primary Investigator
the title of the survey (including acronym and year of implementation)
the survey reference number
the source and date of download

Example:

David McKenzie, World Bank, Christopher Woodruff, University of Warwick. Business Practices in Small Firms in Developing Countries (BPSFDC) 2008-2014. WLD_2008-2014_BPSFDC_v01_M. Dataset downloaded from [url] on [date].

Disclaimer and copyrights

Disclaimer

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

Name	Affiliation	Email
David McKenzie	World Bank	dmckenzie@worldbank.org

Metadata production

DDI Document ID

DDI_WLD_2008-2014_BPSFDC_v02_M_WB

Producers

Name	Affiliation	Role
Development Data Group	World Bank	Study documentation

Date of Metadata Production

2016-03-14

Metadata version

DDI Document version

DDI Document - Version 02 - (04/21/21)
This version is identical to DDI_WLD_2008-2014_BPSFDC_v01_M_WB but country field has been updated to capture all the countries covered by survey.