In 2023, the bank partnered with NORC for a cognitive audit of the survey questionnaire, and in 2024, it selected us to conduct the longitudinal WBES in nine countries. On-the-ground realities drive how NORC conducts the ongoing surveys. By tailoring our methodologies to local contexts, we have significantly increased WBES response rates. For example, increasing incentives doubled the response rates in the Netherlands, and in the Caribbean, doing an in-person sweep of a sampling sector instead of using a call center increased rates by roughly 60 percent. In the past two years alone, we have completed nearly 6,500 interviews in Belize, Ecuador, Chile, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, St. Lucia, Suriname, Uruguay, and the United States (a first).

“Working with the World Bank to expand the reach and efficacy of the WBES has allowed us to further hone our expertise in business research and demonstrate that we can conduct establishment surveys anywhere in the world thanks to NORC’s existing global network,” said Juan Carlos Donoso, a senior research scientist in NORC’s Public Affairs & Media Research department. “What’s particularly exciting for me is meeting the field team on site, and learning critical background from them, such as what they think will be the most challenging part of our outreach.”

To gather these perceptions more comprehensively and accurately, our cognitive audit examined the survey through respondents’ eyes. We observed recordings of 60- to 90-minute interviews with business owners and managers, then evaluated each question. Our auditors identified points where respondents interpreted the same question differently, a signal that the question itself needed revision. This and other insights led NORC to develop a shorter questionnaire, which reduced respondent burden and yielded more reliable data.

We also conducted an experiment to test a multi-mode approach—in-person or online interviews, or a combination of the two. It revealed that more fine-tuning is needed before we fully transition to online interviews, a process called computer-assisted web interviewing, for WBES.

Working across a range of economies is logistically challenging, and the challenge in Chile was twofold: conduct 1,000 new interviews and re-interview representatives from the 1,033 firms surveyed in 2010. However, the 2010 list of business contacts was outdated, and an updated one was unavailable.

We partnered with a local firm, Datavoz, to help us conduct 1,000 interviews with a nationally representative sample of firms. We also brokered an agreement between the World Bank and Equifax to cross-reference the 2010 WBES database with Equifax’s business records. The shift in responses was dramatic.

“Before, our callers had difficulties getting beyond gatekeepers or through a company’s automated phone system,” said Donoso. “Once the Equifax database provided the phone numbers and names of those in charge, our Chilean interview numbers jumped from 100 interviews over six months to 500 interviews in just three months.”

We used similar commercial data partnerships as well as artificial intelligence searches to enhance outdated sample frames in Argentina and elsewhere.

“Each country presents its own surveying challenges, which impact our methods. In Belize, we went door to door, whereas in Chile we used a call center,” Donoso said.

In Chile, a major landslide blocked access to an entire region during our survey. In Ecuador, interviewers worked through a severe energy crisis with blackouts of up to 18 hours. Additionally, surveys launched in January in the Northern Hemisphere are conducted at the height of summer in the Global South, a time when business activity typically slows.

We’ve also found that firms in countries that rely more heavily on World Bank assistance are often more willing to participate in the WBES than those that do not. We are adjusting for these variables by customizing the size of our local surveying team and level of effort—including training surveyors—country by country.

Returning to the same countries on a regular basis—now every three years after being more sporadic—the surveys allow researchers and policymakers to track changes in business conditions over time. Do permits take longer to obtain than they did before? Have informal payments and corruption increased or decreased? Have firms grown their workforce or closed entirely?

These data are helping inform policy now and as the project continues. NORC is currently working with the World Bank to refine the methodology, questionnaire, and overall process.