EARSC Industry Survey

Data Collection and Preparation

The data is collected by a series of steps. In moving to an annual survey, EARSC has adopted a focused approach so that not all companies are asked to fill in data every year.

• Full Survey Approach: EARSC contacts all companies in the database that are more than five years old. Those less than five years old are also contacted but are asked to respond to the separate start-up survey with adapted questions.
• Start-up Survey: The dedicated survey on start-ups differs from the full survey. A core set of questions is common to both with additional questions adapted to the maturity of the companies, and topics of particular interest.
• Trend Analysis: This data is compared to the same data from 12 months ago to establish industry-wide trends. The trend data is applied to the full EARSC database which contains the data from earlier years.
• Additional Data Collection: EARSC may seek out additional data if key questions remain. EARSC will either gather this data directly or may purchase the data from a commercial supplier. This generally yields revenue data.
• Revenue Calculations: For those companies with no revenue data, using the data collected, EARSC can calculate an average revenue per head for the different company classes, which is then applied to those companies for which data on the number of employees, but not revenue data, is available.
• Data Extrapolation: For those companies with no employment or revenue data, EARSC extrapolates information on them according to the distribution in the main dataset over micro and small companies and applies average revenues per head.
• Quality Assurance: All data is examined carefully, and any perceived anomalies cross-checked to correct false results. Companies may be contacted to confirm data.