University of Tokyo

Abstract
Survey Number 0622
Survey Title Survey on State of New Business Start-ups (special surveys), 2008
Depositor Japan Finance Corporation Research Institute
Restriction of Use For detailed information, please refer to 'For Data Users' at SSJDA website.

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Educational Purpose Only available for research.
Period of Data Use Permission One year
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Nesstar Not available
Summary The National Life Finance Corporation Research Institute (now, the Japan Finance Corporation Research Institute) has conducted the “Survey on the State of New Business Start-ups” 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.

This year (2008), it focused on start-ups with start-up costs of less than five million yen, which represent a growing share of the composition in recent years, and conducted a special survey that expanded the survey sample to discover their situation.

The “Survey on State of New Business Start-ups, 2008” (SSJDA survey number 0621), as conducted every year, examines companies that have been trading for one year or less at the point of funding, whereas the “Survey on State of New Business Start-ups (special surveys), 2008” stored here expands the sample to companies that have been trading for five years or less for its investigation. Accordingly, the special surveys include individual data from the general surveys.
Data Type quantitative research
quantitative research: micro data
Universe New start-ups
Unit of Observation Organization
Sample Size Sample size: 11,153, valid responses: 3,007 (valid response rate: 27.0%)
Date of Collection 2008-08-01 ~ 2008-08-01
Time Period 2008 ~ 2008
Spatial Unit Japan
Japan
Sampling Procedure Non-probability: Availability
11,153 companies within five years 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 2009.

(Note) Real estate rental businesses have been excluded from the survey sample.
(Note) The survey sample also includes those for the “Survey on State of New Business Start-ups, 2008” (SSJDA survey number 0621).
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.0622
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 The survey items are the same as for the “Survey on State of New Business Start-ups, 2008.”

(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
<Superiors, colleagues and subordinates from previous workplace whom respondent employed at start-up> … 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
<Friends, acquaintances and relatives whom respondent employed at start-up> … Relationship, reasons for employing, reasons that friends, etc. worked for respondent, current employment status, qualities attributable to friends, etc. who are still employed
<People whom respondent did not know until conducting recruiting activities to employ them at start-up> … 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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