Duke University conducted surveys gauging the country's economic outlook from the perspective of corporate CFOs for eight years, and CFO magazine prepared its own Global Confidence survey for four years before the two were merged in December 2004 to form the Duke/CFO Magazine Business Outlook.
The Duke/CFO Business Outlook survey is conducted quarterly. Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and CFO magazine poll the CFOs of both public and private companies around the globe.
About the Survey

Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and CFO magazine conduct the CFO Outlook Survey by interviewing CFOs of companies and subscribers of CFO magazine around the world every March, June, September and December. The survey is usually released in early March, June, September, and either late November or early December.

Sampling Procedure

The survey questionnaire is delivered online to senior financial executives and subscribers of CFO magazine. During the 1996-2003 period, survey respondents included members of Financial Executives International. The sample includes CFOs from both public and private companies represent a broad range of industries, geographic areas and revenues. Among the industries represented are retail/wholesale, mining/construction, manufacturing, transportation/energy, communications/media, technology, and banking/finance/insurance.

About the Questions

Certain questions remain constant in each survey to capture trend data on corporate optimism, expected GDP growth, capital investment plans, and quarterly percentage changes in a variety of business categories. Revenue-weighted means are provided for earnings, capital spending, technology spending, advertising spending, inventory and prices of products. Employee-weighted means are used for productivity (output per hours worked), wages, number of employees and overtime.

Other questions change each quarter in order to examine topical economic issues and newsworthy business or political events that may affect the landscape of corporate finance.

History

The survey has been conducted every quarter since July 1996. An archive of past surveys is available under the “Past Results” tab at http://www.cfosurvey.org.