As the TEA flowchart shows, some of the individuals that are asked questions in the start-up (SU) section actually appear to be owner-managers (OM) once the survey is running. Conversely, some of the individuals who indicate to be owning and managing a business from the initial selection question {OWNMGE}, turn out to be nascent entrepreneurs based on the further information provided in the OM-section. Hence it is important to note that, if you would like to look for some characteristics of the nascent entrepreneurs (as indicated by the binary variable SUBOANW), such as the type of business, this information should be abstracted from original questionnaire items in both SUTYPE (most of the cases) and OMTYPE (the additional cases that have been reclassified from the OM section).
A similar rule holds for retrieving characteristics of owner-managers in new firms and those in established firms. The indicators that have been derived from the original GEM questions have all accounted for these reclassifications. For example, the indicator SU_SIC1D gives the relevant information for nascent entrepreneurs as regards main sector of the business that is being set up by the respondent and includes the answers given in both the start-up (SU) and owner-manager (OM) section. In general, the abbreviations adopted in the multi-year data base are as follows:
SU_XXXXX Nascent entrepreneur, and characteristic XXXXX
BB_XXXXX Owner-manager in new firm, and characteristic XXXXX
EB_XXXXX Owner-manager in established firm, and characteristic XXXXX
TEAXXXXX Early-stage entrepreneur, and characteristic XXXXX