IP Outreach Research > IP Creation

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Main Findings

Over the last two financial years, as at August 2007, innovation activity was reported by 47% of New Zealand businesses (versus 52% in 2005). Larger firms were more likely to be innovating than smaller ones. Almost half of innovating businesses spent less than 1 percent of their total expenditure on innovation activities. About a third spent between one and five percent.

The most innovative sectors were communication services (with 73% of businesses innovating during the last two financial years), cultural/recreational services (61%), and finance and insurance (59%). The least innovative sectors were construction (38%), agriculture/forestry/fishing (34%), and mining and quarrying (31%).

Businesses cited “lack of management resources (e.g. time)”, “lack of appropriate personnel”, “costs to develop or introduce”, “government regulation”, and “lack of marketing expertise” as the main barriers to innovation.

Top reasons for undertaking innovation were increasing revenue (cited by 87% of innovating firms), reducing costs (71%), increasing market share (68%), improving productivity (66%), and increasing customer responsiveness (59%).

The most commonly reported sources of ideas or information for innovative activities were “existing staff” (at 70%), followed by “customers” (57%), “new staff” (51%), “suppliers” (47%), and “conferences, trade shows or exhibitions” (46%). The least often cited sources were “government agencies” (13%), “crown research institutes, other research institutes or research associations” (13%), and “universities or polytechnics” (9%).

Compared to non-innovators, innovating firms were more successful in all business performance measures, from increases in sales (reported by 65% of innovators and 51% of non-innovators), to increases in profitability (48% versus 40%), increases in productivity (48% versus 32%), and increases in market share (36% versus 21%).

[Date Added: Nov 20, 2008 ]