Venture Outsource conducted a spring survey of the electronics supply chain decision makers across North America Europe and Asia. The survey, which was sponsored by a premier electronics components distributor Digi-Key Corporation, covered 412 executives from different market segments of the supply chain.

This recent survey gathered opinions from 412 executives from different market segments of the supply chain, including 179 key decision makers and a further 154 participants involved in the decision-making process of their organizations.

It was seen that the decision makers were more optimistic, while the participants in the decision making process appeared to be more conservative. Key decision makers however adopted a more balanced stance and scored somewhere between the two.

The Venture Outsource survey questioned the survey respondents about the current and future state of the business environment posing questions regarding employment, business volume, and product pricing and profits. They were also asked about the electronics supply chain crisis in Japan.

Majority of the respondents worked for electronics OEM or ODM companies followed by respondents from semiconductor firms. 21 percent were electronic equipment and component manufacturers, while 25 respondents were from logistics firms.

Based on respondent responses, three indices were formed—a current index that represented respondent's average scores for their current outlook, a future index that took into account the average of respondent's scores for future expectations and an overall index that was an average of the current and future index.

According to the survey results, the future appeared to be bright for the electronics supply chain with the Key decision makers indicating that there was likely to be an average increase Current and Future indices of 6.4 percent. However, average scores for current inventory levels and business volumes showed a tendency to decline.

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan has had many voicing concern about the supply chain and although the impact of the natural disaster was felt most in the automotive industry, majority of the respondents remained buoyant about the market.

In contrast, the networking and telecommunications respondents were pessimistic followed by the semiconductor market that echoed similar pessimistic sentiments.