The Business Monitor provides UPS and its customers with a better understanding of the issues driving business decisions in Europe and the world. The Harris Research Centre carried out a total of 1,508 interviews among European business leaders between 5 November and 9 December 1998. Respondents were at director level in businesses selected from Europe's top 15,000 companies by revenue. Interviewing was conducted in the respondents' native tongue by interviewers working from the Harris International Telephone Research Centre in Richmond, London. Interviewing for previous surveys was conducted in Spring 1992, Autumn 1992 and in the Autumn of each subsequent year.
Graphics shown are abstracts of key findings from the full survey results.
This icon indicates that the Internet version of the results contains expanded details. As a result executives are cautious in their predictions for the future. With the prediction that the economic situations in Asia, Russia and Brazil will have little impact on their future business success, Europe's business elite still see the global economic climate as having the most significant impact on their business. This year the decline in Asia's future as tomorrow's growth centre was confirmed as business leaders continue to strongly refocus their attention on Western Europe. This contrasts with the previous two years where two-thirds believed EMU membership would benefit their company.