The Scottish Government

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Listen

2 Survey method and report structure

2.1 Aims of the survey

This report sets out the key findings in Scotland from the Annual Small Business Survey 2006. The research involved a large-scale telephone survey conducted by IFF Research Ltd between November 2006 and February 2007.

The main aims of the survey were to:

• Monitor key trends in the characteristics and perceptions of small business owners and managers.
• Serve as a "listening exercise" among small businesses; gauging their intentions, plans, needs, concerns and the obstacles they face to fulfilling their potential.
• Act as a sounding board for possible government actions and interventions to support and assist small businesses.

2.2 Survey method

A total of 9,905 Small and Medium sized Enterprises ( SMEs) were interviewed, of which 1,014 were located in Scotland. For the purposes of the survey, an SME was defined as any business with zero to 250 employees.

Interviews were conducted across the UK with a stratified random sample as follows:

• An initial target of 6,235 interviews was distributed evenly across the nine regions of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Boost samples were included for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the North West, East Midlands and the East of England.
• Within each country, targets were set for businesses with no employees (ten per cent) and for employers of different sizes (micro 36 per cent, small 36 per cent and medium 18 per cent). However, in those English regions that elected to boost, targets were fixed at the regional level to ensure that these regions would have sufficient sample of their own in each size band.
• The sample was randomly drawn across all commercial sectors of the economy.

The survey findings have been weighted to represent the population of SMEs in the UK at the time of the survey.

The size of the sample means that findings can be reported with a relatively high degree of statistical reliability. At the overall level, the statistical error for a finding of 50 per cent (the most statistically sensitive or unreliable level of finding) is ±1.04 per cent; in Scotland it is ±3.24 per cent (see Table 2.1).

Table 2.1 Statistical confidence in survey findings¹

The data have not been weighted to represent the different sectors of the economy, although random selection across all sectors has delivered a sample which is broadly representative of the UKSME employer population across sectors.

2.3 Report structure

Although the survey questionnaire was very similar, the structure of this 2006 report differs to that of previous years. This reflects feedback from the users of previous reports which suggested that the document should be made more accessible and focus on the findings in which there is most interest.

The main differences in the presentation of findings compared to previous years are:

• The report has been reduced significantly in length and much of the detail underpinning the headline findings has been omitted ².
• Only findings relating to SMEs with employees are reported. These are referred to throughout the report as SME employers. A total of 916 such employers were interviewed in Scotland ³.
• In addition to documenting key characteristics of SME employers, the report focuses on growth performance, growth aspirations and obstacles to business success. Consideration is also given to a range of other factors associated with growth including: access to finance, innovation, exporting, training and seeking advice.

The remainder of the report is set out as follows:

Section 3: Size and structure of the SME sector and characteristics of business owners.

Section 4: Recent growth performance and future growth ambitions.

Section 5: Perceptions of the obstacles to business success.

Section 6: Factors associated with growth:

• Financing the business.
• Innovation.
• Exporting.
• Training.
• Use of ICT.

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