New Deal for Business – metrics subgroup report: business and industry surveys - capturing core business measures
This report explores how data collection in business and industry surveys can be made more consistent. It summarises questions used in a selection of business surveys in Scotland and provides guidance on framing questions.
4. Findings from review of surveys
Surveys examined in our review contain a mixture of regular period questions as well as more topical questions relating to specific themes that may change year to year. For example- surveys conducted during the pandemic focused extensively on lockdown restrictions and supply chain issues that were prevalent in that period. While it may be easy to frame topical questions that are leading in nature; careful consideration must be utilised to ensure that topical questions remain as neutral as possible.
Business and economic surveys pertaining to economic activity tend to have questions that can be roughly classified in three broad categories:
a) Backward looking questions ( “How have things changed from last quarter/last year”)
b) Forward looking questions ( “How do you expect the following to change over the next quarter/year”)
c) Topical Questions/ Questions with a Current Focus
Specific themes that business/economic surveys tend to measure include business confidence, revenues/profits ( split by geography – domestic/ UK/international), cashflows, investment ( total, capital, training ), employment levels, current workload/orders/customer activity/ inventories/ research and development. Examples of specific questions are listed below.
Contact
Email: OCEABusiness@gov.scot