1

The Statistical Issues and Interestsof the Korean women owned SMEs

Republic of Korea

The Small and Medium Business Administration

The Small and Medium Business Administration 2

Contents

Introduction

The Progress of the Survey

Results and Limitations

Proposals for Further Improvements

The Small and Medium Business Administration 3

Introduction

Contribution of women-owned business to national economy - No. of employment and establishments etc.

0

5

10

15

20

25

1998 2000 2001

No. of Employment(100,000)

No. of Establishment(100,000)

The Small and Medium Business Administration 4

Traditional industry sectors favored by women entrepreneurs : Hotels & Restaurant and Wholesale & retail trade

- Emerging new sectors such as S/W, ICT and e-commerce

Government recognizes the importance of women entrepreneurs

- introducing an Act, June 1999 - starting the survey on women owned businesses,

Nov. 1999

The Small and Medium Business Administration 5

Progress of the Survey

Since 1999, survey on women-owned business been done biannually

Parent PopulationClassifi-cation Restriction No.

SampleSize

1st +5 workers 9,800 2,010

2nd None 980,000 2,080

3rd None 1,000,000 2,040

The Small and Medium Business Administration 6

Limitations

Inconsistency of parent population - leaving incomplete and incomparable data

Low retrieval rate and high rejection rate - causing extra labor, time and cost

Low credibility of answers in financial performance

- threatening the whole credibility of the survey

The Small and Medium Business Administration 7

Inconsistency with other surveys

Name of the Survey (frequency)

Sample PopulationScope

(No. of workers)

Sectors

(ISICS)

Fact finding survey on women SMEs

Women owned businesses 1 ~ 299B ~ J, L, M, Q, R

Fact finding survey on SMEs

Business in manufacturing industry

5 ~ 299 D

Analysis of financial data

Business whose turnover exceeds 1 bill. KRW

5 ~ 299B ~ J, L, M, Q, R

Financial statement analysis

Legal entities whose turnover exceeds 2 bill. KRW

1 ~ no restriction

B ~ J, L, M, Q, R

The Small and Medium Business Administration 8

Inconsistency within the survey

Parent PopulationClassifi-cation Restriction No.

SampleSize

SamplingMethodology

1st

(1999)+5 workers 9,880 2,010 Purposive

2nd

(2001)None 980,000 2,080 Proportional

The Small and Medium Business Administration 9

1st Stage : Making Contact

Lost/Missing contactOwner changed to maleRefuse to answerNominal women ownerAgreed to survey

The Small and Medium Business Administration 10

2st Stage : Retrieval Questionnaire

Retrived-not usedNot retrived in timeRefuse to answerRetrived-used

The Small and Medium Business Administration 11

Financial Performance (Ordinary profit to equity)

Classification

The fact-finding

survey onwomenowned

business

Fact findingsurvey on

SMEs

Analysis offinancial

data

Financialstatementanalysis

Manufacturingbusiness with

5 - 299workers

22.7% 10.4% 7.1% 11.8%

The Small and Medium Business Administration 12

Further improvements

Develop a population data base that covers the whole demography of SMEs for all surveys

- make stratification of population as close as possible with that of already existing SMEs surveys

Utilize already available DB so that get rid of redundancy in the questionnaire as much as possible

The Small and Medium Business Administration 13

Further improvements

Elaborate on the questionnaire to make it more respondent friendly by incorporating the specific feature of women entrepreneurs

Provide accounting S/W for SMEs to get familiar with filing financial statement

Return some value to participating respondents