In light of these responses, it may be said that small manufacturing firms find it easier to form expectations on sales prices than do large ones. This is probably because small manufacturing firms tend to project future sales prices through supplier-transaction relationships with large firms and also because they deal with limited kinds of parts and intermediate goods.
Meanwhile, small nonmanufacturing firms form expectations on sales prices by taking into account an expected increase in production costs while considering relevant market prices influenced mainly by large nonmanufacturing firms. This may reflect the fact that small nonmanufacturing firms are relatively more labor intensive than large ones and are already facing a labor shortage.