Innovation in New Zealand: 2003

Innovation activity leads to tangible business benefits, according to Innovation in New Zealand 2003, a new report published by Statistics New Zealand.

The report found that businesses that passively adopt innovations are two and a half times more likely to have increased profitability than are those with no innovation activity. Businesses that are leaders in innovation activity are one and a half times more likely to have increased profitability.

Businesses which were first-to-market with new products and services were most likely to report that innovation activities opened new markets overseas (47 percent). A majority of innovating businesses reported an increased range of goods and services (80 percent), increased profitability (79 percent), improved efficiency (75 percent) and new or expanded markets within New Zealand (64 percent) as a result of their innovation activities in the past three years.

An innovation is defined as the introduction of a new or significantly improved product or service to the market, or process within a business. The Innovation Survey was developed by Statistics New Zealand in collaboration with the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST), and will enable comparison with similar international surveys. Innovation in New Zealand 2003 is available at www.stats.govt.nz. A printed version is available on request for $35.

Brian Pink
Government Statistician

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>