During the year 2005 Istat has carried out for the first time the Factors of Business Success survey (Fobs). This survey is harmonised, as regards the methodology and the questionnaire, with the European Fobs survey carried out in the same period by 15 Eu-countries on a voluntary basis, whose purpose is to gather all the information necessary for identifying and analysing the reasons behind the success of new activities.
The target population of the survey is defined – based on the concepts of the Business Demography data collection – as an enterprise born in 2002, which had survived to 2005 and which was still managed by the original entrepreneur founder or by a different founder.
The survey focuses on characteristics of the entrepreneurs who founded the enterprise like experience in the branch, management experience, age, gender, educational background and citizenship, motivation for start-up, and some economic performance characteristics of the enterprise itself like the current situation and business plans for future.