Facebook Survey

The Future of Business Survey is a collaboration between Facebook, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and The World Bank. Updated monthly, it provides timely insight into the world’s economic environment with the use of Facebook Survey.

The survey focuses on small and medium enterprises, and factors that can help them succeed in our digitally-connected global economy. In its first year, more than 140,000 Facebook Page owners from more than 30 countries contributed to the survey, which is available for download in its entirety. The Future of Business Survey is relevant to businesses, policymakers, academics, and journalists, who all share a common interest in the global business environment.

The Future of Business Survey

• • Businesses can identify challenges, gauge industry, and economic outlook, and learn about their peers around the globe.

• • Policymakers can use the survey to better understand the business sentiment and inform decision-making.

• • Academics can access global economic data at a fraction of the cost in time and money it would take to collect that same data at an institutional level.

• Journalists can uncover local, regional, and global trends and insights by tapping into the survey — such as how world events impact business sentiment.

The Future of Business Survey captures perspectives of both new and established digital businesses, providing a unique window into the digital economy.

The frequency — and uniform methodology — of data collection across so many countries contribute to the survey’s value. It gives anyone, anywhere online, the ability to explore global insights in a rigorous and timely way, and at no cost.

Composite Indicators are derived from responses to two sets of questions:

1. 1. How would you evaluate the current state of your business/industry/economy [positive, neutral, negative]?

1. What is your outlook for the next six months on your business/industry/economy [positive, neutral, negative]?

The Composite Indicator is interpreted as a score scaled from -100 (all businesses have negative current and future outlooks, in all areas) to 100 (all businesses have positive outlooks).

Overall Status is a measure of the first Composite Indicator question:

• • How would you evaluate the current state of your business/industry/economy [positive, neutral, negative]?

This indicator is presented as a percentage of businesses who evaluate each as positive or negative.

Overall Expectation corresponds to the second Composite Indicator question:

• • How would you evaluate the outlook for the next six months of your business/industry/economy [positive, neutral, negative]?

This indicator is presented as a percentage of businesses who evaluate each as positive or negative.

Employees Development asks two questions:

1. 1. Has the number of employees in the organization changed in the past six months?

1. Is the number of employees expected to change in the next six months?

These summaries and projections are delivered in the survey as a monthly or quarterly increase/decrease.

Most Important Challenges provides twelve options from which organizations select their top priorities. There is no limit to the number they can select and these selections are not ranked. The choices are:

1. 1. Attracting customers

1. 1. Maintaining profitability

1. 1. Uncertainty over economic conditions

1. 1. Retaining/recruiting skilled employees

1. 1. Developing new products/innovation

1. 1. Finding/working with suppliers

1. 1. Securing financing for business as usual

1. 1. Securing financing for expansion

1. 1. Selling to foreign markets

1. 1. Other government regulations

1. 1. Tax laws and rules

1. Increasing revenue

The most important challenges indicator is presented as the percent of businesses that identify themselves as facing each challenge.

The indicator User of Online Tools lists six business goals and asks businesses whether they turn to online tools or platforms to accomplish these tasks:

1. 1. Provide information

1. 1. Show products/services

1. 1. Sell products/services

1. 1. Communicate with customers or suppliers

1. 1. Advertise to potential new customers

1. Manage internal business processes

The result is presented as the percentage of businesses that use online solutions to meet each goal.

Company Size is presented as a numerical range which respondents can select from.

Company Age is presented as numerical ranges which respondents can select from.

Management Gender indicates whether a company’s leadership is:

• • Mainly male

• • Mainly female

• Balanced

Management is considered mainly one gender based on (a) the gender of its sole proprietor or (b) if over 65% of its management is of one gender.

Respondents can self-identify as operating in one of 16 Industries:

1. 1. Accommodation

1. 1. Arts/recreation

1. 1. Automotive repair

1. 1. Communication/information

1. 1. Construction

1. 1. Education

1. 1. Food Services

1. 1. Healthcare

1. 1. Manufacturing

1. 1. Non-profit

1. 1. Other

1. 1. Personal Services

1. 1. Professional services

1. 1. Real Estate

1. 1. Retail/ Wholesale trade

1. Transport/storage

Additional Indicators

Additional indicator change based on economic priorities. For example, in early 2017, the Survey tracked five indicators on the health of global trade. All indicators can be filtered by country (versus global totals) and time aggregation (monthly or quarterly), by using the drop-down near the start of the page.

We’ll start by brainstorming how organizations can apply survey data to real-world situations. For example:

• • A small business that makes B2B software might use company indicators to identify their next big opportunity.

• • A journalist might use composite indicators to research an article on regional trends.

• A policymaker or academic could turn to additional indicators — such as those on international trade — to determine whether there’s a correlation between business confidence and export behavior.

Try to brainstorm some more: how might a medium business use a composite indicator? When might a journalist turn to company indicators? They could check the online tool used for one country, then another, and another — but there’s a better way. The real power of the survey is the ability to perform basic data operations in the interface — or to download all the survey data in tabular format, then filter, sort, split, compare, or pivot on it using a program like Excel or an analytic language such as SQL.

Overall Status and Overall Expectation are indicated in percentages. Composite Indicators are scaled from 100 to -100 and include neutral assessments.