The panel of businesses was created using a random sample from Dun & Bradstreet’s (D & B) Database list of new businesses started in 2004. The KFS oversampled “innovative” businesses on the basis of information on the intensity of research and development employment in the businesses’ primary industries. The KFS excluded D & B records for businesses that were wholly owned subsidiaries of existing businesses, businesses inherited from someone else, and not-for-profit organisations. Data from the first wave (2004) are used to identify the owners-founders of the enterprises and to construct the variables related to their characteristics (gender, experience, etc.).