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4 INNOVATION STATISTICS
4.2.2 ASPECTS OF SKILLS SHORTAGES AND INNOVATION IN AUSTRALIAN BUSINESSES (DIISR) Synopsis This research paper investigates the incidence of skills shortages that were reported to have hampered innovation in innovating businesses in Australia using micro-data from the ABS 2003 Innovation Survey. It investigates the association between such skills shortages and other key business characteristics such as size, ownership, industry, location, age, and type of skill generally sought. According to the analyses, smaller innovating businesses were more likely to experience skills shortages which hampered innovation (SSHI) than those affecting larger businesses. In addition, domestically owned businesses were identified as being more likely to experience skills shortages hampering innovation than those businesses with a degree of foreign ownership. The proportion of ‘frontier’ innovating businesses – i.e. those with new to the world innovations – that experience SSHI was less than those exhibiting lower degrees of novelty of innovation. Innovating businesses that engaged in both product and process innovation were more likely to experience SSHI, reflecting the greater depth and diversity of skill required to conduct both types of innovation. Innovating businesses that sought out skills in the ‘other’ (likely to be mostly trades) ‘engineering’ and ‘product management’ skill categories were more likely to experience SSHI. While a relatively high proportion of businesses seeking ‘information technology’ skills reported experiencing SSHI, the econometric analysis, which provides a better indication of the association between SSHI and a given skill category (independent of the influence of other variates in the model) indicated very little association between SSHI and the ‘information technology’ skill category. Link: Aspects of Skills Shortages and Innovation in Australian Businesses. 4.2.3 COLLABORATION AND OTHER FACTORS INFLUENCING INNOVATION IN AUSTRALIAN BUSINESSES (DIISR) Synopsis This research paper presents the results of an econometric investigation into innovation novelty, collaboration and related characteristics in Australian businesses using micro-data from the ABS 2003 Innovation Survey. Many innovations, especially those of a more complex nature, seem commonly to take place in conjunction with collaboration. The range of skills and knowledge required to successfully carry out innovation often means that an innovating business may be forced to seek complementary skills to those already held in-house. Such a business may seek external skills and experience in one or more of various areas including R & D, systems modification, specialist manufacturing, or branding and marketing. It could also be expected that collaboration might be more common and more important to 'frontier' or 'creative' innovation (products or processes that are 'new to the world') than 'adaptive' innovation (modification of goods and services or processes already introduced elsewhere but which are 'new to Australia' or 'new to the industry' but not 'new to the world') and purely 'adoptive' innovation (adopting the manufacturing/sale of goods and or services, or the introduction of processes which are 'new to the businesses' in question but which have already been introduced elsewhere). Link: Collaboration and Other factors Influencing Innovation Novelty in Australian Businesses. 4.3 ABS INNOVATION TECHNICAL REFERENCE GROUP (TRG) The Innovation Technical Reference Group, set up to provide advice to the ABS on innovation data collection issues, met in the ABS on 11 April 2008. Members from the following key stakeholder organisations participated in the meeting: Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR), CSIRO, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), Productivity Commission, and the Ministry of Treasury. Key items discussed in the meeting included:
The next Innovation TRG is scheduled for early September 2008. 4.4 SOME USEFUL NON-ABS WEBSITES ON INNOVATION STATISTICS Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR) http://www.Industry.gov.au Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) http://www.deewr.gov.au Productivity Commission (PC) http://www.pc.gov.au Backing Australia's ability website http://backingaus.innovation.gov.au Biotechnology Australia http://www.biotechnology.gov.au Document Selection These documents will be presented in a new window.
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8101.0 - Innovation and Technology Update, 2008
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 29/07/2008
This page last updated 12 February 2009