3 INNOVATION STATISTICS
3.1 ABS INNOVATION REFERENCE GROUP
3.2 RECENTLY RELEASED INNOVATION STATISTICS
3.3 CONFIDENTIALISED UNIT RECORD FILES (CURFs)
3.3 AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT AGENCY COLLABORATIONS with ABS
3.1 ABS INNOVATION REFERENCE GROUP
The Innovation Reference Group, which provides advice to the ABS on innovation issues, including research and experimental development, convened at ABS on 26 March 2009. Members from the following key stakeholder organisations participated in the meeting: Dept of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR), Dept of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), Dept of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (DAFF), Dept of Trade and Economic Development, South Australia, Productivity Commission, CSIRO, Australian Innovation Research Centre and Universities Australia.
Topics discussed included:
- the development of an Australian Innovation Measurement Framework;
- issues arising during the development of an initial BLD CURF;
- ABS analytical projects utilising BLD; and
- recent international developments in the collection of innovation statistics.
The next Innovation Reference Group meeting is scheduled for mid November 2009.
3.2 RECENTLY RELEASED INNOVATION STATISTICS
The latest issue of
Summary of IT Use and Innovation in Australian Business, 2006-07 (cat. no. 8166.0) was released on 25 June 2009.
The latest issue of
Innovation in Australian Business, 2006-07 (cat. no. 8158.0), was released on
22 August 2008. This release is a combination of web based information and data cubes, and reveals that 37% of Australian businesses were engaged in innovation activity in 2006-07.
The next issue of the publication
Selected Characteristics of Australian Businesses, 2006-07 (cat. no. 8167.0), will be released on 17 September 2009. It contains a range of general business characteristics information cross classified by innovator status.
For more information about business characteristics outputs (including BUIT, Innovation and general business characteristics), please contact Peter Hodgson, Innovation and Technology Business Statistics Centre, ABS on (08) 9360 5367.
The first iteration of the Business Longitudinal Database (BLD) CURF will be released in late October 2009.
The BLD CURF incorporates the first two panels of the BLD:
- Panel One: initiated in 2005, includes data for three reference periods (2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07)
- Panel Two: initiated in 2006, includes data for two reference periods (2005-06 and 2006-07)
The prime function of the BLD CURF will be to facilitate the analysis of a range of business policy issues based around
business growth and performance over time and reflects strong demand for micro-economic data from a wide range of government and private sector users.
For more information about the BLD CURF, please contact Diane Braskic, Innovation and Technology Business Statistics Centre, ABS on (08) 9360 5241.
3.4 AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT AGENCY COLLABORATIONS with ABS
3.4.1 COLLABORATION WITH PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION
This project, to commence in August 2009, is a joint collaboration between ABS and the Productivity Commission(PC).
The project entails micro-data analysis of longitudinal data collected in the BLD and will focus on the role and impact of competition on innovation and productivity performance in Australian businesses. International evidence indicates that in many cases competition increases productivity growth, but findings to date are not conclusive. The absence of studies of Australian firms means that uncertainty surrounds the application of any results to Australian policy design.
This proposal builds on a long history of ABS collaboration with the PC on analytical projects. One of the more recent collaborations between ABS and PC occurred in 2006-07 and involved the analysis of linked microdata from the 2003 Innovation Survey and other ABS annual industry surveys. That analysis examined the propensity of businesses to innovate and the impact of innovation on firm-level productivity growth.
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