Sample Requirements

A representative National sample of at least 36 experts stratified on the nine critical framework conditions as follows:

• Four experts in the entrepreneurial financing system, i.e. bankers, venture capitalists, private investors, business angels, public subsidies and other specialists in this field. One of the experts must be a person involved in any phase of the entrepreneurial process.

• Four experts related with governmental public policies for entrepreneurs, i.e. members of government staff, members of public agencies related with firm creation and development, state secretaries and others of a similar nature. One of the experts must be a person involved in any phase of the entrepreneurial process.

• Four experts related with governmental public programs for entrepreneurs, i.e. policy makers, local development agencies, institutes and foundations that launch entrepreneurship programs, Chambers of Commerce, business associations and similar. One of the experts must be a person involved in any phase of the entrepreneurial process.

• Four experts related with entrepreneurial education and training, i.e. professors and teachers from any educational institution (from schools to universities) as well as professional or vocational instructors. They can also include people from agencies who are involved entrepreneurship training programmes. One of the experts must be a person involved in any phase of the entrepreneurial process.

• Four experts related with R&D transfer, i.e. researchers, personnel of technological and scientific parks, technological incubators, developers of scientific or technological programs. One of the experts must be a person involved in any phase of the entrepreneurial process related with the technological sphere.

• Four experts related with the commercial and professional infrastructure. They can include persons serving the entrepreneurial community such as consultants, lawyers, assessors, public agents, accountants and other similar people. One of the experts must be a person involved in any phase of the entrepreneurial process. 

• Four experts related with the internal market openness. They can include persons such as market analysts, financiers, specialized journalists and economists, researchers in this field, brokers, trade agencies and the like. One of the experts must be a person involved in any phase of the entrepreneurial process.

• Four experts related with the physical infrastructure and services. They can include providers of real estate, water, light, gas, public infrastructures, logistics, incubators, technological parks, communications and telecommunications. One of the experts must be a person involved in any phase of the entrepreneurial process.

• Four experts related with the cultural and social norms. They can include persons that have opinions in commerce chamber s, entrepreneurial and business associations, women associations, journalists, sociologists, psychologists, institutions that promote entrepreneurship, researchers in this field and the like. One of the experts must be a person involved in any phase of the entrepreneurial process.
  

There are no restrictions on the age range or gender for the target population of the GEM NES: experts are selected based on their experience and specialization in the framework conditions. This survey is different from the APS and the objective is to obtain qualified opinions.

All geographic regions of the country should be covered, including urban and rural areas; experts must be residents in the target country or region.

A formal description of the proposed sample of experts, including their positions and specializations must be detailed by the teams in the initial RFP. Teams also deliver a final RFP when the survey is complete.

Case or Respondent Identification Number

A unique identification is given to each respondent. This identification includes: the year of the survey, the country or region code (4 digits, complemented with zeros if necessary), the entrepreneurial framework condition (EFC) that led to his/her selection and the expert number from 01 to 36 (or more if a team does more than 36 interviews).

Socio-Demographic Items

The experts are requested to complete a set of questions which include the following socio-demographic characteristics as well as other details about their relation with entrepreneurship: 

• Respondent’s gender

• Respondent’s birth year

• Educational Attainment: they can indicate in the four categories ranging from the basic school to postgraduate qualifications

• Type of career or profession

• The last year in which they completed any educational programme

• Current job position and year they started

• Knowledge or experience with different types of firms: domestic, out of the country, technological, international, rural, urban etc.

• Profile: entrepreneur, policy maker, services provider, financer, researcher/professor or other

• Name and contact address (GEM only uses this for internal documentation and follow-up communication)
  

Translation of Opened Responses

The questionnaire includes nine open-ended responses: three factors that experts consider inhibits or constrains entrepreneurship in their country, three factors that enhance or support entrepreneurship in their country and three recommendations from the experts to improve the entrepreneurial framework. Until 2007 the answers given had to be translated into English. However, from 2008 National Teams were asked to keep the original responses and then comment on them for their National Report (this report is much appreciated by policy makers). 

From the global point of view, teams only need to provide GEM with a qualitative codification of these responses depending on the topic they refer to. For example, if an expert indicates: “Entrepreneurship financing is the main constraint, because of restricted access to bank credit”. This answer is related to entrepreneurial financing and coded with the number 1, as this is the first of the 20 topics considered by GEM for this part. This allows GEM Global to compile statistics on the conditions perceived as more critical, more favourable or on the topics for which experts are making more suggestions.

Timing of Work

All fieldwork including the final data sets together with all documentation and the final RFP are to be completed by a specified deadline - usually the middle of July.

Data Summary and Analysis

Data are summarized in a comparative international NES SPSS file. This file includes the medians of all the closed responses, the means, the standard deviations of the closed questions and the percentages/distribution of the opened questions. No analysis of any data is required or expected to be undertaken by the National Team or their vendor. The NES questionnaire has been designed so that the blocks of closed questions and Likert scales measures follow constructs on each framework conditions affecting entrepreneurship. 

The GEM Data Team calculates a principal component analysis on the global NES data obtained each year. The blocks are summarized in one or two principal components and these new, quantitative and continuous variables are those that represent the status of the entrepreneurial framework conditions. The scores of these variables are included in the comparative file for each nation, after a rigorous reliability analysis using Cronbach’s Alphas.