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Measuring the innovative activity of New Zealand firms

Author

Listed:
  • Simon Wakeman

    (Productivity Commission)

  • Trinh Le

    (Motu Research)

Abstract

International comparisons suggest that, although the New Zealand public sector invests considerable resources into scientific research, New Zealand firms are not particularly effective at generating applied knowledge and even less so at turning it into commercial products. However, these findings are based on aggregate data and there is limited evidence on innovative activity at the firm level. This paper provides an overview of measures that capture both the inputs into and outputs from the innovative activities of New Zealand firms, using data on firm-level innovation from 2005 to 2013 available from Statistics New Zealand's Longitudinal Business Database. The paper finds that the various measures tell different stories about the pattern of innovative activity across New Zealand firms. Notably, R&D expenditure and intensity are only weakly correlated with, and display different patterns to, measures of innovative output. For example, different types of innovation output occur in firms that do not report any investment in R&D. Accordingly, to get a full picture of the innovative activity of New Zealand firms, it is necessary to use multiple measures to get a broader picture.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Wakeman & Trinh Le, 2015. "Measuring the innovative activity of New Zealand firms," Working Papers 2015/02, New Zealand Productivity Commission.
    • Handle: RePEc:ayz:wpaper:15_02
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Woodfield, Paul J. & Ooi, Yat Ming & Husted, Kenneth, 2023. "Commercialisation patterns of scientific knowledge in traditional low- and medium-tech industries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

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