The Australian Government's Innovation Report

Notes:
1. Australia’s ranking is in a field of 27 to 30 OECD countries with the exception of: Investment in ICT as a percentage of business sector gross fixed capital
formation (21), Growth in multi-factor productivity between 1999 and 2003 (19), Total percentage of innovating businesses in the economy (18), Percentage
of turnover from new goods and services (17) and Percentage of innovators with collaboration activity (16).
2. The average is a country average rather than a weighted average.
3. Higher Education Sector R&D expenditure is valued on a 2004 calendar year basis and is normalised on that calendar year GDP to be consistent. Australian
Government Sector R&D expenditure is valued on a 2004-05 financial year basis and is normalised by that financial year GDP to be consistent. GDP figures used
are the most recently revised ABS figures at time of printing. This differs slightly from the methodology used in the 2004 and 2002 scorecard. In the 2004 and
2002 scorecards Government Sector and Higher Education sector R&D were both normalised by financial year GDP.
4. Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources calculation of weighted OECD average is based on each countries relative share of total OECD population.
5. Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources calculation of weighted OECD average is based on each countries relative share of total OECD labour force
population.
6. Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources calculation of weighted OECD average is based on each countries relative share of the total number of
innovating businesses in the OECD.
7. Tertiary Education refers to traditional university degree of a length of three years or greater.
8. The methodology used here is consistent with the methodology used in the 2002 scorecard. It refers to the number of science graduates aged 25-34 in employment per
100 000 employed 25-34 year olds. This omits international or domestic students who graduated in the country of interest but are employed elsewhere and also
omits those aged over 34. In the 2004 scorecard this indicator was changed to the number of science graduates per 10 000 persons in the entire labour force. This
change was necessitated by data unavailability at the time of the 2004 scorecard (see 2004 scorecard notes). Since then data in line with the original methodology have
become available for both this 2006 scorecard and the previous 2004 scorecard.
9. The source for Australian venture capital data has changed. Data shown here for this and previous scorecards reflect this change. The previous source for Australian
data was the Australian Venture Capital Journal (AVCJ) but this journal is no longer published. Australian data is now sourced from the ABS “Venture Capital”
publication (catalogue 5678.0). Caution should be exercised when making comparisons between countries as this is a new topic of statistical measurement where
international standards are still in development, so there may be considerable collection and methodology differences between nations.
10. This indicator was not included in previous Scorecards. The 2004 and 2002 ranks given here use 2004 and 2003 data respectively.
11. Australian values for these indicators were derived from the ABS 8158.0 Innovation in Australian Business Survey. To make these indicators consistent with the
methodology used in the Third Community Innovation Survey (CIS3) from which the data for other countries were drawn, appropriate changes were made. Industries
falling under ANZIC classifications A,E,G, M,N,O,P,Q and subdivision 77 were excluded from analysis as they did not correspond to the industries included in the
CIS3. Also, Australian firms were excluded from being an “innovator” if they had indicated they had engaged in Organisational innovation only, i.e. they did not
indicate any new or significantly improved product or process innovation. The averages of these indicators are for the European Union members of the OECD only.
12. This indicator was not included in the 2002 Scorecard. The 2002 rank given here is using 1999 data.
13. Averages for multi-factor productivity growth should be interpreted cautiously as productivity change may be driven by different factors across economies.
14. The definition of Internet selling and purchasing varies between countries, with some explicitly including orders placed by conventional email (for instance,
Australia and Canada) and others explicitly excluding such orders (e.g. Ireland, the UK and some other European countries). Most countries explicitly use the
OECD concept of Internet commerce, that is, goods or services are ordered over the Internet but payment and/or delivery may be off-line. All industries includes,
for most countries: Manufacturing, Construction, Wholesale and retail, (part) Hotels and restaurants, Transport, storage & communication, Real estate, renting
and business activities and (part) Other community, social and personal service activities
124 Backing Australia’s Ability