Research Methodology
During February 2011, the EIU conducted a survey of 527 executives of private and public companies with annual revenues between $50 million and $1 billion. The survey included questions about business metrics (pre-, mid- and post-recession), plans for growth (financing, global expansion, headcount), as well as the executives’ outlook for the future and what they view as potential obstacles to success. Concurrently, the EIU conducted individual interviews with 15 chief executive officers of mid-market companies.
The survey and interviews conducted for this report encompassed both private and public companies with annual revenues of between $50 million and $1 billion. The Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed 527 senior decision-makers at these companies. Over one-half (51 percent) were C-level executives, including owners.
All respondents were from US-based companies. Of the total, 20 percent are in the highest revenue bracket (between $500 million and $1 billion) and 30 percent are in the lowest (between $50 million and $99.9 million). Fifteen different industries were represented by at least 10 respondents. The most-represented industries were business/professional services (18 percent); consumer/manufactured goods (15 percent); and health care, pharmaceuticals, and life sciences (10 percent).
Sixteen states were represented by at least 10 respondents, and 43 were represented in total. The states that were most heavily represented were California and New York (13 percent and 11 percent of respondents, respectively, said their companies were based there), followed by Illinois (8 percent), Texas (7 percent), Pennsylvania (6 percent), Massachusetts (5 percent), and New Jersey (4 percent).
