Global Entrepreneurship Monitor [GEM]: Adult Population Survey Data Set, 1998-2017 (ICPSR 20320)

Version Date: Jul 12, 2022

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Principal Investigator(s):
Paul D. Reynolds, Aston University

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR20320.v6

Version V6 ()

  • V6 [2022-07-12]
  • V5 [2021-04-12] unpublished
  • V4 [2016-12-14] unpublished
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Summary

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor [GEM] research program was developed to provide comparisons among countries related to participation of adults in the firm creation process. The initial data was assembled as a pretest of five countries in 1998 and by 2012 over 100 countries had been involved in the program. The initial design for the GEM initiative was based on the first US Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, and by 2012 data from 1,827,513 individuals had been gathered in 563 national samples and 6 specialized regional samples.

This dataset is a harmonized file capturing results from all of the surveys. The procedure has been to harmonize the basic items across all surveys in all years, followed by implementing a standardized transform to identify those active as nascent entrepreneurs in the start-up process, as owner-managers of new firms, or as owner-managers of established firms. Those identified as nascent entrepreneurs or new business owners are the basis for the Total Entrepreneurial Activity [TEA] or Total Early-Stage index. This harmonized, consolidated assessment not only facilitates comparisons across countries, but provides a basis for temporal comparisons for individual countries.

Respondents were queried on the following main topics: general entrepreneurship, start-up activities, ownership and management of the firm, and business angels (angel investors). Respondents were initially screened by way of a series of general questions pertaining to starting a business, such as whether they were currently trying to start a new business, whether they knew anyone who had started a new business, whether they thought it was a good time to start a new business, as well as their perceptions of the income potential and the prestige associated with starting a new business. Demographic variables include respondent age, sex, and employment status.

Citation

Reynolds, Paul D. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor [GEM]: Adult Population Survey Data Set, 1998-2017. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-07-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR20320.v6

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Funding

Department of Business Enterprise and Innovation, Alberta Government, Alliance of Microfinance Organizations, Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Angola   Kazakhstan   Portugal   Syria   Greece   Latvia   Morocco   Iran   Bosnia-Hercegovina   Panama   Guatemala   Chile   Argentina   Georgia (Republic)   Zambia   Ghana   Belize   India   Canada   Turkey   Belgium   Namibia   Taiwan   Finland   South Africa   Trinidad and Tobago   Jamaica   Peru   Germany   Yemen   Vietnam (Socialist Republic)   Puerto Rico   Hong Kong   United States   China (Peoples Republic)   Madagascar   Thailand   Libya   Costa Rica   Sweden   Malawi   Poland   Jordan   Nigeria   Bulgaria   Tunisia   Croatia   Uruguay   United Kingdom   United Arab Emirates   Switzerland   Spain   Lebanon   Venezuela   Czech Republic   Burkina Faso   Israel   Australia   Estonia   Cameroon   Gaza Strip   Cyprus   Malaysia   Iceland   South Korea   Austria   El Salvador   Luxembourg   Brazil   Algeria   Slovenia   Tonga   Colombia   Ecuador   Hungary   Japan   New Zealand   Vanuatu   Senegal   Italy   Macedonia   Ethiopia   Singapore   Egypt   Bolivia   Russia   Saudi Arabia   Netherlands   Pakistan   Kosovo   Ireland   Qatar   Slovakia   France   Serbia   Lithuania   Romania   Philippines   Bangladesh   Barbados   Norway   Botswana   Dominican Republic   Denmark   Mexico   Uganda   Suriname   Montenegro   Indonesia

Smallest Geographic Unit

Country

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

1998 -- 2017

Date of Collection

1998 -- 2017

Data Collection Notes

  1. A related collection, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM): Expert Questionnaire Data, 1999-2003, is available as ICPSR 21862.

  2. Additional information on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor [GEM] can be found by visiting the GEM Web site.

  3. Online Analysis is available for V4 of the data, which covers 1998-2012. Access to 1998-2017 data is via data download only.

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Study Purpose

This dataset is a harmonized file capturing results from all of the surveys. The procedure has been to harmonize the basic items across all surveys in all years, followed by implementing a standardized transform to identify those active as nascent entrepreneurs in the start-up process, as owner-managers of new firms, or as owner-managers of established firms. Those identified as nascent entrepreneurs or new business owners are the basis for the Total Entrepreneurial Activity [TEA] or Total Early-Stage index. This harmonized, consolidated assessment not only facilitates comparisons across countries, but provides a basis for temporal comparisons for individual countries.

Sample

Developing representative samples of adults was a two stage process. The first step involved a random selection of households leading to a contact with an adult resident. In countries where a high proportion of households have land line telephones, this was done by creating a random set of numbers considered to be household phone numbers. In countries with a high proportion of cell-phone only adults, this has been supplemented with random samples of active cell phone numbers. Numbers were then called, generally up to three times, until an adult respondent answered the phone. In countries with low proportion of households with phones, geographic areas were selected at random for personal contacts by interviewers, who then approached households for a face-to-face interview. In some developing countries phone interviews are conducted in the major urban areas supplemented with face-to-face interviews in rural regions.

Adults from each household were selected for interviews in one of two ways. In some cases it was the first adult contacted and in others a person would be randomly selected from those adults living in the household for the interview. In many developed countries there was a deliberate attempt, quota sampling, to complete half of all interviews with men and half with women.

For additional information on sampling, please refer to the P.I. Codebook.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Adults, 18 years and older.

Unit(s) of Observation

individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

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Original Release Date

2007-10-30

Version History

2022-07-12 PI name has been updated in study documentation.

2021-04-12 Data and a codebook have been added and now include the list of countries covered under Geographic Coverage as 109 countries, the time period and date collection is 1998-2017, updated PI information, updated Grant Manager Information, updated Funding Source, and updated Universe information.

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Reynolds, Paul D. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor [GEM]: Adult Population Survey Data Set, 1998-2017. ICPSR20320-v6. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-07-12. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR20320.v6

2016-12-14 Data have been resupplied and now include survey data from 100 countries and cover the years 1998-2012. A computing error has also been corrected.

2015-06-26 Data from survey years 2004 through 2010 have been added to the collection, and include an expansion in number of countries surveyed. Additionally, data and documentation from previous survey years have been revised.

2009-05-13 Corrections have been made to the data and codebook regarding variable TEA_MOT (TEA index motivation).

2007-10-30 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created online analysis version with question text.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Weight

The data are not weighted, however, this collection contains three weight variables that should be used in any analysis: WEIGHT, WEIGHT_L, and WEIGHT_A. National survey vendors implemented weights that would match the annual cohorts with the best available national data, later adjusted by matching the sample to the U.S. Census Bureau International Data Base (IDB) on national population distributions by age and gender. For more information on weights and sampling please refer to the Original P.I. Documentation section in the ICPSR Codebook.

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Notes