Australia Yearbook - 2001

860 Year Book Australia 2001
25.14 PRIVATE NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS, R&D Resources by Socioeconomic Objective—1998–99
Type of expenditure
Land and
buildings
Other capital
expenditure
Labour
costs
Other current
expenditure
Total
Human
resources
person
Socioeconomic objective
$m
$m $m
$m $m years
Defence — — — — — —
Economic development 0.3 0.5 1.4 1.5 3.7 26
Society
Health 2.9 13.4 79.5 59.8 155.6 1 809
Education and training 0.2 0.4 5.0 7.3 12.9 95
Social development and community services — — 0.9 1.0 1.9 17
Total society 3.1 13.8 85.4 68.1 170.4 1 921
Environment — — 1.4 0.7 2.2 34
Advancement of knowledge 0.1 0.4 4.0 3.2 7.6 88
Total 3.5 14.8 92.2 73.5 183.9 2 068
Source: Research and Experimental Development, Government and Private Non-profit Organisations, Australia (8109.0).
Innovation statistics
Innovation is a measure of the extent to which
science and technology are used within
businesses to create new products or to
implement new processes for the provision of
goods and services. Innovation surveys provide a
wider measure of the innovation process than
R&D surveys.
The ABS has conducted two surveys of
innovation, the first in respect of 1993–94 and a
second, more comprehensive survey, in respect
of 1996–97. These surveys were based on the
concepts and standard questions developed
jointly by the OECD and Eurostat (the statistical
office for the European community). While the
main ABS innovation surveys obtained data from
manufacturing businesses, exploratory surveys
have also been conducted for the mining,
agriculture, construction and telecommunications
industries.
The statistics which follow present some of the
main findings from the ABS innovation surveys of
manufacturing businesses only. The data include
the proportion of businesses which innovate, the
reasons why businesses innovate and the costs
involved. The data are presented by business size,
where small businesses are defined as those
having fewer than 20 employees, medium sized
businesses as those having 20 to 199 employees,
and large businesses as those having 200 or more
employees. The survey results relate only to
businesses with employees.
As can be seen in table 25.15, just over a quarter
of all manufacturing businesses were identified as
undertaking technological innovation in 1996–97.
The rate of technological innovation had a strong
relationship with size of business. Large
businesses were over three times more likely to
undertake technological innovation than small
businesses.
Of businesses which undertook technological
innovation, over half undertook both product
and process innovation (i.e. they introduced new,
or significantly technologically changed products
and used new, or significantly technologically
changed processes to produce their products).
Only 3% of businesses introduced new processes
without introducing new products. Over 8% of
businesses introduced new products without
using new processes.
25.15 MANUFACTURING BUSINESSES, Proportion Undertaking Technological Innovation by Business
Size—1996–97
Technological innovation
Product only
Process only Product and process
Total
Business size
%
%
%
%
Small 7.7 2.6 11.3 21.6
Medium 11.3 5.9 37.7 55.0
Large 10.4 5.8 64.0 80.2
All 8.1 3.0 14.8 26.0
Source: Innovation in Manufacturing, Australia (8116.0).