Business performance and ownership
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Selected geographical area: Canada
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2,654-1.1%
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209,029-0.9%
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Selected geographical area: Canada
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$728.1 million16.7%
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$449.3 million16.0%
(period-to-period change)
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$146.2 million1.4%
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All (14) (0 to 10 of 14 results)
- Articles and reports: 11-522-X200800010957Description:
Business surveys differ from surveys of populations of individual persons or households in many respects. Two of the most important differences are (a) that respondents in business surveys do not answer questions about characteristics of themselves (such as their experiences, behaviours, attitudes and feelings) but about characteristics of organizations (such as their size, revenues, policies, and strategies) and (b) that they answer these questions as an informant for that organization. Academic business surveys differ from other business surveys, such as of national statistical agencies, in many respects as well. The one most important difference is that academic business surveys usually do not aim at generating descriptive statistics but at testing hypotheses, i.e. relations between variables. Response rates in academic business surveys are very low, which implies a huge risk of non-response bias. Usually no attempt is made to assess the extent of non-response bias and published survey results might, therefore, not be a correct reflection of actual relations within the population, which in return increases the likelihood that the reported test result is not correct.
This paper provides an analysis of how (the risk of) non-response bias is discussed in research papers published in top management journals. It demonstrates that non-response bias is not assessed to a sufficient degree and that, if attempted at all, correction of non-response bias is difficult or very costly in practice. Three approaches to dealing with this problem are presented and discussed:(a) obtaining data by other means than questionnaires;(b) conducting surveys of very small populations; and(c) conducting surveys of very small samples.
It will be discussed why these approaches are appropriate means of testing hypotheses in populations. Trade-offs regarding the selection of an approach will be discussed as well.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - Articles and reports: 11-522-X200800010959Description:
The Unified Enterprise Survey (UES) at Statistics Canada is an annual business survey that unifies more than 60 surveys from different industries. Two types of collection follow-up score functions are currently used in the UES data collection. The objective of using a score function is to maximize the economically weighted response rates of the survey in terms of the primary variables of interest, under the constraint of a limited follow-up budget. Since the two types of score functions are based on different methodologies, they could have different impacts on the final estimates.
This study generally compares the two types of score functions based on the collection data obtained from the two recent years. For comparison purposes, this study applies each score function method to the same data respectively and computes various estimates of the published financial and commodity variables, their deviation from the true pseudo value and their mean square deviation, based on each method. These estimates of deviation and mean square deviation based on each method are then used to measure the impact of each score function on the final estimates of the financial and commodity variables.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - 3. Off-line questionnaires at Statistics Netherlands: The Annual Structural Business Survey example ArchivedArticles and reports: 11-522-X200800010964Description:
Statistics Netherlands (SN) has been using electronic questionnaires for Business surveys since the early nineties. Some years ago SN decided to invest in a large scale use of electronic questionnaires. The big yearly production survey of about 80 000 forms, divided over many different economical activity areas, was redesigned using a meta database driven approach. The resulting system is able to generate non-intelligent personalized PDF forms and intelligent personalized Blaise forms. The Blaise forms are used by a new tool in the Blaise system which can be downloaded by the respondents from the SN web site to run the questionnaire off-line. Essential to the system is the SN house style for paper and electronic forms. The flexibility of the new tool offered the questionnaire designers the possibility to implement a user friendly form according to this house style.
Part of the implementation is an audit trail that offers insight in the way respondents operate the questionnaire program. The entered data including the audit trail can be transferred via encrypted e-mail or through the internet to SN. The paper will give an outline of the overall system architecture and the role of Blaise in the system. It will also describe the results of using the system for several years now and some results of the analysis of the audit trail.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - Articles and reports: 11-522-X200800010983Description:
The US Census Bureau conducts monthly, quarterly, and annual surveys of the American economy and a census every 5 years. These programs require significant business effort. New technologies, new forms of organization, and scarce resources affect the ability of businesses to respond. Changes also affect what businesses expect from the Census Bureau, the Census Bureau's internal systems, and the way businesses interact with the Census Bureau.
For several years, the Census Bureau has provided a special relationship to help large companies prepare for the census. We also have worked toward company-centric communication across all programs. A relationship model has emerged that focuses on infrastructure and business practices, and allows the Census Bureau to be more responsive.
This paper focuses on the Census Bureau's company-centric communications and systems. We describe important initiatives and challenges, and we review their impact on Census Bureau practices and respondent behavior.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - Articles and reports: 11-522-X200800010984Description:
The Enterprise Portfolio Manager (EPM) Program at Statistics Canada demonstrated the value of employing a "holistic" approach to managing the relationships we have with our largest and most complex business respondents.
Understanding that different types of respondents should receive different levels of intervention and having learnt the value of employing an "enterprise-centric" approach to managing relationships with important, complex data providers, STC has embraced a response management strategy that divides its business population into four tiers based on size, complexity and importance to survey estimates. Thus segmented, different response management approaches have been developed appropriate to the relative contribution of the segment. This allows STC to target resources to the areas where it stands to achieve the greatest return on investment. Tier I and Tier II have been defined as critical to survey estimates.
Tier I represent the largest, most complex businesses in Canada and is managed through the Enterprise Portfolio Management Program.
Tier II represents businesses that are smaller or less complex than Tier I but still significant in developing accurate measures of the activities of individual industries.
Tier III includes more medium-sized businesses, those that form the bulk of survey samples.
Tier IV represents the smallest businesses which are excluded from collection; for these STC relies entirely on tax information.
The presentation will outline:It works! Results and metrics from the programs that have operationalized the Holistic Response Management strategy.Developing a less subjective, methodological approach to segment the business survey population for HRM. The project team's work to capture the complexity factors intrinsically used by experienced staff to rank respondents. What our so called "problem" respondents have told us about the issues underlying non-response.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - 6. Achieving data coherence for complex enterprises ArchivedArticles and reports: 11-522-X200800010985Description:
In Canada, although complex businesses represent less than 1% of the total number of businesses, they contribute more than 45% of the total revenue. Statistics Canada recognized that the quality of the data collected from them is of great importance and has adopted several initiatives to improve the quality. One of the initiatives is the evaluation of the coherence of the data collected from large, complex enterprises. The findings of these recent coherence analyses have been instrumental in identifying areas for improvement. These, once addressed and improved, would be increasing the quality of the data collected from the large, complex enterprises while reducing the response burden imposed on them.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - Articles and reports: 11-522-X200800011008Description:
In one sense, a questionnaire is never complete. Test results, paradata and research findings constantly provide reasons to update and improve the questionnaire. In addition, establishments change over time and questions need to be updated accordingly. In reality, it doesn't always work like this. At Statistics Sweden there are several examples of questionnaires that were designed at one point in time and rarely improved later on. However, we are currently trying to shift the perspective on questionnaire design from a linear to a cyclic one. We are developing a cyclic model in which the questionnaire can be improved continuously in multiple rounds. In this presentation, we will discuss this model and how we work with it.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - Articles and reports: 11-621-M2009082Geography: CanadaDescription:
Using data from Quarterly Financial Statistics (QFS) for Enterprises and National Balance Sheet Accounts (NBSA), this article examines the indebtedness and liquidity position of Canadian non-financial corporations from 1961 to 2009. Recent trends in these two financial indicators are also presented by industry.
Release date: 2009-11-17 - Articles and reports: 11-010-X200901010945Geography: CanadaDescription:
A detailed look at the sudden drop in Canada's exports and imports starting last autumn finds that 80% of their declines was concentrated in energy, autos and industrial goods. Consumer and agricultural goods were largely unaffected by the recession.
Release date: 2009-10-15 - Articles and reports: 11-010-X200900910924Geography: CanadaDescription:
The growth of unincorporated GDP fell below corporate GDP in recent years, after similar increases in the two sectors through most of the 1990s. The slowdown was more pronounced for self-employment, after much faster growth in the 1990s.
Release date: 2009-09-10
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Analysis (14)
Analysis (14) (0 to 10 of 14 results)
- Articles and reports: 11-522-X200800010957Description:
Business surveys differ from surveys of populations of individual persons or households in many respects. Two of the most important differences are (a) that respondents in business surveys do not answer questions about characteristics of themselves (such as their experiences, behaviours, attitudes and feelings) but about characteristics of organizations (such as their size, revenues, policies, and strategies) and (b) that they answer these questions as an informant for that organization. Academic business surveys differ from other business surveys, such as of national statistical agencies, in many respects as well. The one most important difference is that academic business surveys usually do not aim at generating descriptive statistics but at testing hypotheses, i.e. relations between variables. Response rates in academic business surveys are very low, which implies a huge risk of non-response bias. Usually no attempt is made to assess the extent of non-response bias and published survey results might, therefore, not be a correct reflection of actual relations within the population, which in return increases the likelihood that the reported test result is not correct.
This paper provides an analysis of how (the risk of) non-response bias is discussed in research papers published in top management journals. It demonstrates that non-response bias is not assessed to a sufficient degree and that, if attempted at all, correction of non-response bias is difficult or very costly in practice. Three approaches to dealing with this problem are presented and discussed:(a) obtaining data by other means than questionnaires;(b) conducting surveys of very small populations; and(c) conducting surveys of very small samples.
It will be discussed why these approaches are appropriate means of testing hypotheses in populations. Trade-offs regarding the selection of an approach will be discussed as well.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - Articles and reports: 11-522-X200800010959Description:
The Unified Enterprise Survey (UES) at Statistics Canada is an annual business survey that unifies more than 60 surveys from different industries. Two types of collection follow-up score functions are currently used in the UES data collection. The objective of using a score function is to maximize the economically weighted response rates of the survey in terms of the primary variables of interest, under the constraint of a limited follow-up budget. Since the two types of score functions are based on different methodologies, they could have different impacts on the final estimates.
This study generally compares the two types of score functions based on the collection data obtained from the two recent years. For comparison purposes, this study applies each score function method to the same data respectively and computes various estimates of the published financial and commodity variables, their deviation from the true pseudo value and their mean square deviation, based on each method. These estimates of deviation and mean square deviation based on each method are then used to measure the impact of each score function on the final estimates of the financial and commodity variables.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - 3. Off-line questionnaires at Statistics Netherlands: The Annual Structural Business Survey example ArchivedArticles and reports: 11-522-X200800010964Description:
Statistics Netherlands (SN) has been using electronic questionnaires for Business surveys since the early nineties. Some years ago SN decided to invest in a large scale use of electronic questionnaires. The big yearly production survey of about 80 000 forms, divided over many different economical activity areas, was redesigned using a meta database driven approach. The resulting system is able to generate non-intelligent personalized PDF forms and intelligent personalized Blaise forms. The Blaise forms are used by a new tool in the Blaise system which can be downloaded by the respondents from the SN web site to run the questionnaire off-line. Essential to the system is the SN house style for paper and electronic forms. The flexibility of the new tool offered the questionnaire designers the possibility to implement a user friendly form according to this house style.
Part of the implementation is an audit trail that offers insight in the way respondents operate the questionnaire program. The entered data including the audit trail can be transferred via encrypted e-mail or through the internet to SN. The paper will give an outline of the overall system architecture and the role of Blaise in the system. It will also describe the results of using the system for several years now and some results of the analysis of the audit trail.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - Articles and reports: 11-522-X200800010983Description:
The US Census Bureau conducts monthly, quarterly, and annual surveys of the American economy and a census every 5 years. These programs require significant business effort. New technologies, new forms of organization, and scarce resources affect the ability of businesses to respond. Changes also affect what businesses expect from the Census Bureau, the Census Bureau's internal systems, and the way businesses interact with the Census Bureau.
For several years, the Census Bureau has provided a special relationship to help large companies prepare for the census. We also have worked toward company-centric communication across all programs. A relationship model has emerged that focuses on infrastructure and business practices, and allows the Census Bureau to be more responsive.
This paper focuses on the Census Bureau's company-centric communications and systems. We describe important initiatives and challenges, and we review their impact on Census Bureau practices and respondent behavior.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - Articles and reports: 11-522-X200800010984Description:
The Enterprise Portfolio Manager (EPM) Program at Statistics Canada demonstrated the value of employing a "holistic" approach to managing the relationships we have with our largest and most complex business respondents.
Understanding that different types of respondents should receive different levels of intervention and having learnt the value of employing an "enterprise-centric" approach to managing relationships with important, complex data providers, STC has embraced a response management strategy that divides its business population into four tiers based on size, complexity and importance to survey estimates. Thus segmented, different response management approaches have been developed appropriate to the relative contribution of the segment. This allows STC to target resources to the areas where it stands to achieve the greatest return on investment. Tier I and Tier II have been defined as critical to survey estimates.
Tier I represent the largest, most complex businesses in Canada and is managed through the Enterprise Portfolio Management Program.
Tier II represents businesses that are smaller or less complex than Tier I but still significant in developing accurate measures of the activities of individual industries.
Tier III includes more medium-sized businesses, those that form the bulk of survey samples.
Tier IV represents the smallest businesses which are excluded from collection; for these STC relies entirely on tax information.
The presentation will outline:It works! Results and metrics from the programs that have operationalized the Holistic Response Management strategy.Developing a less subjective, methodological approach to segment the business survey population for HRM. The project team's work to capture the complexity factors intrinsically used by experienced staff to rank respondents. What our so called "problem" respondents have told us about the issues underlying non-response.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - 6. Achieving data coherence for complex enterprises ArchivedArticles and reports: 11-522-X200800010985Description:
In Canada, although complex businesses represent less than 1% of the total number of businesses, they contribute more than 45% of the total revenue. Statistics Canada recognized that the quality of the data collected from them is of great importance and has adopted several initiatives to improve the quality. One of the initiatives is the evaluation of the coherence of the data collected from large, complex enterprises. The findings of these recent coherence analyses have been instrumental in identifying areas for improvement. These, once addressed and improved, would be increasing the quality of the data collected from the large, complex enterprises while reducing the response burden imposed on them.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - Articles and reports: 11-522-X200800011008Description:
In one sense, a questionnaire is never complete. Test results, paradata and research findings constantly provide reasons to update and improve the questionnaire. In addition, establishments change over time and questions need to be updated accordingly. In reality, it doesn't always work like this. At Statistics Sweden there are several examples of questionnaires that were designed at one point in time and rarely improved later on. However, we are currently trying to shift the perspective on questionnaire design from a linear to a cyclic one. We are developing a cyclic model in which the questionnaire can be improved continuously in multiple rounds. In this presentation, we will discuss this model and how we work with it.
Release date: 2009-12-03 - Articles and reports: 11-621-M2009082Geography: CanadaDescription:
Using data from Quarterly Financial Statistics (QFS) for Enterprises and National Balance Sheet Accounts (NBSA), this article examines the indebtedness and liquidity position of Canadian non-financial corporations from 1961 to 2009. Recent trends in these two financial indicators are also presented by industry.
Release date: 2009-11-17 - Articles and reports: 11-010-X200901010945Geography: CanadaDescription:
A detailed look at the sudden drop in Canada's exports and imports starting last autumn finds that 80% of their declines was concentrated in energy, autos and industrial goods. Consumer and agricultural goods were largely unaffected by the recession.
Release date: 2009-10-15 - Articles and reports: 11-010-X200900910924Geography: CanadaDescription:
The growth of unincorporated GDP fell below corporate GDP in recent years, after similar increases in the two sectors through most of the 1990s. The slowdown was more pronounced for self-employment, after much faster growth in the 1990s.
Release date: 2009-09-10
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