The State of Minority- and Women- Owned ... - Cleveland.com

Appendix A. Glossary
NSSBF or SSBF. The Survey of Small Business Finances, formerly the National Survey of Small
Business Finances, was produced jointly by the Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. Small
Business Administration to provide a periodic statistical picture of small business finances. The
SSBF was discontinued in 2003.
Native American: Refers to an individual having origins in any of the original peoples of North
America, including Native Hawaiians.
Nonminority: Firms that are not M/WBEs, i.e., not owned by African Americans, Hispanics,
Asian/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, or White females.
PUMS: Public Use Microdata Sample. Both the decennial census and the American Community
Survey publish PUMS products.
p-value: A standard measure used to represent the level of statistical significance. It states the
numerical probability that the stated relationship is due to chance alone. For example, a p-value
of 0.05 or 5 percent indicates that the chance a given statistical difference is due purely to chance
is 1-in-20. See also “Statistical Significance.”
Regression, multiple regression, multivariate regression: A type of statistical analysis which
examines the correlation between two variables (“regression”) or three or more variables
(“multiple regression” or “multivariate regression”) in a mathematical model by determining the
line of best fit through a series of data points. Econometric research typically employs regression
analysis. See also “Econometrics.”
SBO: The Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners statistical data series is devoted to
capturing statistical information on the nation’s minority-owned and women-owned business
enterprises. Part of the five-year Economic Census series.
Set-aside, set-asides: A contracting practice where certain contracts or classes of contracts are
reserved for competitive bidding exclusively among a given subset of contractors, for example
minority-owned and women-owned contractors.
SIC: Standard Industrial Classification system. Prior to 1997, the standard system for classifying
industry-based data in the U.S. Superseded by the North American Industry Classification
System (NAICS). See also “NAICS.”
Statistical significance: A statistical outcome or result that is unlikely to have occurred as the
result of random chance alone. The greater the statistical significance, the smaller the probability
that it resulted from random chance alone. See also “p-value.”
SSBF. See NSSBF.
Stratified: In the present context, this refers to a statistical practice where random samples are
drawn within different categories or “strata” such as time period, industry sector, or M/WBE
status.
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