University of Tokyo

Abstract
Survey Number 0621
Survey Title Survey on State of New Business Start-ups, 2008
Depositor Japan Finance Corporation Research Institute
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Educational Purpose Only available for research.
Period of Data Use Permission One year
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Summary The “Survey on the State of New Business Start-ups” has been conducted continuously since 1969 for the purpose of apprehending the state of new business. Since 1991, it has been conducted annually, resulting in the accumulation of data such as age at the start of new business and start-up costs, which can be used for time series comparisons, as well as the carrying out of analyses from a variety of viewpoints.

As of 2000, the survey excluded the real estate rental industry. All chronological data have been recounted to exclude real estate rental businesses.

In conjunction with the launch of the Japan Finance Corporation in October 2008, the Japan Finance Corporation Research Institute has taken over the surveys from its predecessor, the National Life Finance Corporation Research Institute.

Since 1991, the institute has published the survey results annually as the "White Paper on New Business Start-ups," but because this year’s white paper is the first since the Japan Finance Corporation Research Institute was formed and this year marks the 40th anniversary of the first survey and the 10th anniversary of the amendment of the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Basic Act, this year’s publication is a special edition that reviews movements in new business start-ups and changes to business founding support policies since the 1990s through long-term longitudinal analysis in Part 1.

This survey focuses on the management resources of new business start-ups (Part 2 of the white paper). It pays particular attention to employees among human resources and examines in detail what types of employees improve the performance of newly started businesses, among other factors. The survey also focuses on start-ups with low funding and uncovers their actual situations, but this aspect has been analyzed using data from special surveys with the expanded survey sample (SSJDA survey number 0622).

Note that the special survey in 2008 expanded the sample to “companies that had been trading for five years or less at the point of funding,” which also includes the data from this survey.
Data Type quantitative research: micro data
Universe New start-ups
Unit of Observation Organization
Sample Size Sample size: 7,222 companies, valid responses: 1,918 companies (valid response rate: 26.6%)
Date of Collection 2008-08-01 ~ 2008-08-01
Time Period 2008 ~ 2008
Spatial Unit Japan
Japan
Sampling Procedure Non-probability: Availability
7,222 companies within one year of startup (including companies yet to start trading) at the time of financing from among the companies financed by branches of the National Life Finance Corporation (today, the Japan Finance Corporation) across Japan between April and September 2007.
Mode of Data Collection Self-administered questionnaire: Paper
Mail survey (anonymous questionnaire)
Investigator National Life Finance Corporation Research Institute (the Japan Finance Corporation Research Institute)
DOI 10.34500/SSJDA.0621
Sponsors (Funds)
Related Publications (by the Investigator) Please refer to the abstract in Japanese.
Related Publications (based on Secondary Analysis) List of related publications (based on Secondary Analysis)
Documentation [Questionnaire]
Major Survey Items (1) Business overview
Management type (at start-up, now), main customers, novelty of business contents, respects in which respondent’s products or services most excel over competitors, whether it is a venture business or new business, franchise/chain affiliation

(2) Manager
Gender, month and year of birth, highest level of educational attainment, occupation immediately before starting business, size by number of employees of workplace immediately before starting business, how respondent left immediately preceding workplace, things carried over from immediately preceding workplace, differences from products and services of the previous workplace, changes in number of employees at previous workplace, consultation with senior management and superiors at previous workplace, working experience and number of years as a regular employee, experience in the field and number of years of experience, experience of business management, home ownership and whether there is a loan outstanding

(3) Employees
Breakdown of number of employees (at start-up, now), number of full-time executive officers and regular employees employed at start-up by recruitment pathway
… Relationship (superior/colleague/subordinate), reasons for employing, reasons that superiors, etc. worked for respondent, current employment status, qualities attributable to superiors, etc. who are still employed, state of exhibiting skills compared to previous workplace
… Relationship, reasons for employing, reasons that friends, etc. worked for respondent, current employment status, qualities attributable to friends, etc. who are still employed
… Relationship (recruitment pathway), reasons for employing, reasons that people whom respondent did not know until conducting recruiting activities worked for respondent, current employment status, qualities attributable to people whom respondent did not know until conducting recruitment activities who are still employed

Measures taken to improve the desire to work of full-time executive officers and regular employees

(4) History leading to start-up, etc.
Motivation to start business, trigger for going ahead with starting business, whether respondent applied to borrow from financial institutions at start-up and reasons for not applying, breakdown of start-up costs, breakdown of sources for procuring start-up costs, measures taken to cut start-up costs, month and year when respondent began preparations for start-up, start-up month and year, difficulties at start-up, level of fulfillment at start-up (securing clients/securing suppliers/number of employees/employee skills/amount prepared from own funds/amount of funding procured from financial institutions), start-up plan (whether respondent created and evaluated a written start-up plan, people and institutions that evaluated the start-up plan, changes to the start-up plan, reasons for changes to the start-up plan)

(5) Management conditions and business outlook, etc.
Current performance (current business conditions, sales conditions, monthly sales, target monthly sales before start-up, profitability, time when respondent began generally turning a profit, amount of current net income), changes in number of competitors, current difficulties, level of satisfaction (income/job satisfaction), future scale of business, timing of borrowing from financial institutions after start-up
Date of Release 2009/10/13
Topics in CESSDA Click here for details

Working conditions
Topics in SSJDA Economy/Industry/Management
Version 1 : 2009-10-13
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