This survey was conducted in Azerbaijan between February 2013 and August 2013 as part of the fifth round of the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS V), a joint initiative of the World Bank Group and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The objective of the survey is to obtain feedback from enterprises on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries. The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90% of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country's business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents' opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance. In 2011, the innovation module was added to the standard set of Enterprise Surveys questionnaires to examine in detail how introduction of new products and practices influences firms' performance and management.
