Frequencies, impacts and costs of innovation:

results of an Australian pilot survey

Anthony Arundel, Kieran O’Brien, Dominique Bowen-Butchart,

Sarah Gatenby-Clark

Canberra Sept 2015

Goals

• Test questions for possible inclusion in the Business Characteristics Survey or for one-off surveys– Cognitive testing (33 interviews)– Pilot survey: 359 responses out of an in-scope

sample of 1,600 businesses. RR = 22.4%

• Test survey methodologies (online versus mailed)

Canberra Sept 2015

Canberra Sept 2015

Survey response rates

Frequency of innovation

Canberra Sept 2015

Item response rates from 87.4% to 92.8%

Frequency of different types of innovations, innovative firms

only

Canberra Sept 2015

External expenditures on innovation: item RR = 78.1%

During the year ended 31 December 2014, approximately how much did this business spend on the following external activities to develop, or introduce new or significantly improved goods, services, processes or marketing methods?

% non-zero response

% total external expenditure

Purchase of machinery, equipment or technology (including hardware and software) with functions or capabilities that were new or significantly improved for this business 74.0% 88.3%

Purchase of research services from other businesses 15.9% 0.2%

Purchase of design, marketing or training services from other businesses

48.0% 9.8%

Purchase of licenses to use patents or other types of intellectual property owned by other businesses

15.8% 1.7%

External innovation expenditures by employment class

Employees % total expenditures

Median expenditure

0-4 persons 0.3% $3,500

5-19 persons 0.2% $7,000

20-199 persons 1.4% $46,500

200 persons or more 98.2% $150,000

All businesses 100.0% $33,000

Canberra Sept 2015

Estimated expenditures on external innovation activities for all

Australian businesses

Low estimate (based on median expenditures standardized by employment class)

•3.5 – 4.0 billion

•For comparison, total R&D expenditures by Australian businesses approx. 18 billion in FY 2011/12

Canberra Sept 2015

Distribution of in-house innovation

expendituresExpenditure category N %

Zero 20 9.8%

$1 to less than $25,000 80 39.0%

$25,000 to less than $50,000 25 12.2%

$50,000 to less than $100,000 21 10.2%

$100,000 to less than $250,000 22 10.7%

$250,000 to less than $1,000,000 25 12.2%

$1,000,000 to less than $5,000,000 9 4.4%

$5,000,000 or more 3 1.5%

205 100.0%Canberra Sept 2015

Cost in person months to develop the firm’s most important

innovationIn total, how many person-months were required to develop and introduce this most important [innovation]?

% of valid responses

Less than 1 month 29.0%

1 month to less than 6 months 36.7%

6 months to less than 12 months 19.3%

12 months to less than 24 months 9.2%

24 months or more 5.8%

100.0%

Canberra Sept 2015Item response rate by innovative firms: 92.3%

Innovation impacts

What percentage of this business’s sales income during the year ended 31 December 2014 was due to new or significantly improved goods or services introduced after 01 January 2014?

0%

Greater than 0% and less than 5%

Greater than 5% and less than 10%

Greater than 10% and less than 25%

Greater than 25%

Canberra Sept 2015Item RR = 96.1%

Distribution of effect of innovation on sales share,

innovative firms only

Canberra Sept 2015

Conclusions

• Two questions adopted by the ABS for the next BCS: innovation sales share (impact) and in-house innovation expenditures.

• External expenditure question meets the requirements for the European CIS.

• Innovation expenditures dominated by a small number of firms with > 200 employees.– Is it worth collecting data for small firms?

• Online surveys without a valid email address don’t work for businesses.