September 11, 2009 -- VentureOutsource.com published findings from its survey of nearly 300 electronics supply chain decision makers on the current business environment, volumes and expectations, and pricing trends. The results show a meaningful increase in optimism about the future, yet no signs of irrational exuberance, or even a serious recovery before the end of 2009. The current market situation is not greatly changed since April 2009, concludes the survey.
Sponsored by IDC, complete survey findings are available on the Venture Outsource Website, as "Bumping Along the Bottom: Electronics Supply Chain Summer 09 Survey Results."
Overall, respondents view the current market situation as they did during the firm's April survey, with an average score for the survey's Current Index of 4.6 out of 10, the same as four months ago. Also, as before, respondents were slightly more optimistic regarding the future, as the survey's Future Index came in at 5.1 out of 10, 5% higher than in April and 10% higher than the Current Index. This indicates a meaningful increase in optimism about the future, yet still no sign of irrational exuberance, or even a serious recovery before the end of 2009.
Half of all survey respondents identified themselves as "key decision makers" in their companies, up from 11% from the firm's Q1'09 survey. Those respondents who "participate in decision making" remained about constant, at 37%. Respondents with a "view into decision making" made up a smaller proportion of respondents, at just 13%, down from 18% in April. This increased authority level in our respondent base should prove significant when analyzing the results of this survey, as approximately 87% of the nearly 300 respondents surveyed are active participants in the supply chain decision making processes of their companies", said VentureOutsource.com founder and president, Mark Zetter.
Survey questions focusing on indicators of respondent satisfaction or emphasis were posed with a scoring basis of 1 to 10 (1 = very negative experience or expectations and 10 = very positive experience or expectations).
According to survey results, the morass of the current market is widely felt with little variation by the various end-markets, or by company type, except by component manufacturers and electronics equipment manufacturers the firm polled, which diverged from the pack, providing lower scores on average than their electronics supply chain counterparts.
Respondents were most pessimistic regarding the economic and employment situation, with average scores of 3.9 and 4.3 out of 10, respectively. These scores were also a little worse than in April.
"Feelings about the future economic situation are up nearly 9% from our last survey. In the end, though, these results show a belief that business will improve, but we believe that an actual broad-based expansion of business activity is not expected across the electronics supply chain in the next one or two quarters," added Zetter.
On the Web:
www.ventureoutsource.com
