New Business in America. The Firms and Their Owners.

This publication provides results of a longitudinal study of young firms and their owners. Data represent the responses of a national sample of new business owners (N=2,994) who were members of the National Federation of Independent Business in May 1985 and had been in business for no more than 17 months with the average respondent owning the business for 11 months. An 11-page summary of data discusses results pertaining to the type of people who form businesses, the firms they form, the business climate, changes in the businesses, and attitudes of owners after 3 years. Appendix I sequentially presents every survey question posed during the entire project and the new business owners' responses to them. It also presents firm or environment data that did not require the owner to respond but for which there were data from another source. Data are provided in unnumbered tables, identified in the upper left hand corner by the year in which the survey was conducted. Forty-nine pages of tables are provided. Appendix II is a note on sampling and methodology. Appendix III contains the regression results of selected "predictors" of new business survival and growth. Appendix IV consists of the three survey questionnaires used in the 3 years of the study. (YLB)