In Q4 of 2022 EFAMRO conducted a new wave of the EFAMRO Moodindicator. Research agencies, that are members of their national trade association, were asked about the business outlook from the perspective of both their own organisation and their domestic market. In this wave, respondents from 11 European countries participated.
The top line results are:
Results are from 11 European countries: Austria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Of the 11 countries 3 countries (Austria, Cyprus and Portugal) had very low responses of 1 or 2 organisations and these results should be regarded as indicative. Overall base is 281.
Thinking about the year ahead the majority of organisations from all 11 countries were confident that their research revenues would be either higher or the same as the previous year. For five of the markets – Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland and Norway – none of the businesses anticipate a reduction in their research revenues (although the participation numbers for Cyprus and Austria were very low). Overall, all the countries that reported, except Portugal, produced net positives from business owners on their anticipated research revenue performance.
50% of research organisations across Europe who participated in the research believe research revenues will increase in 2023. This has reduced from 64% reported in Q2 2022.
Thinking about the year ahead for the research industry as a whole the expectations of growth were lower. The majority of participants from most countries were expecting either higher growth (Greece and Switzerland) or the same level of growth (Austria, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the UK). In Cyprus, Portugal and Spain the same % anticipated industry growth compared to those who expected the industry to stay the same. This more mixed picture was reflected in the net positives for national research markets with Germany, Portugal and the UK being negative with all the other countries which took part reporting net positives.
Only 21% of research organisations across Europe who participated believe industry revenues will increase in the next year. A notable decreased from the 49% reporting expectations of growth in Q2 2022. The majority (53%) expect the research industry will be same over the next 12 months.
Efamro anticipated in the last Moodindicatro report that the general optimism reported when the data for the MoodindicatorQ2 2022 was collected would not necessarily carry forward to the next wave of the research and this has proved to the case.