Innovation: It includes the development or introduction of any new or significantly improved activity for this business. This includes products, processes and methods that this business was the first to develop and those that have been adopted from other organisations.
Innovation rate: The innovation rate is the proportion of businesses that innovate. A business would be counted as 'innovative' if they answered Yes to at least one of the four questions listed below.
1. During the last 2 financial years, did this business introduce onto the market any new or significantly improved goods or services?
2. During the last 2 financial years, did this business implement any new or significantly improved operational processes?
3. During the last 2 financial years, did this business implement any new or significantly improved organisational or managerial processes?
4. During the last 2 financial years, did this business implement any new or significantly improved sales or marketing methods which were intended:
- to increase the appeal of goods or services for specific market segments
- to gain entry to new markets
Employees: the number of employees is defined by an enterprise's rolling mean employment (RME) count. RME is a 12-month moving average of the monthly employment count (EC) figure. The EC is obtained from tax data.
Enterprise: a business or service entity operating in New Zealand. It can be a company, partnership, trust, estate, incorporated society, producer board, local or central government organisation, voluntary organisation, or self-employed individual.
Last financial year: for this survey, refers to the last financial year for which the business had results available at August.
The Business Operations Survey results are subject to measurement errors, including both non-sample and sample errors. These errors should be considered when analysing the results from the survey.
Changes to data collection/processing
Because of the large range of data needed, Statistics NZ developed an integrated, modular survey – the Business Operations Survey – to collect the required information and minimise the reporting load for New Zealand businesses. The survey was designed to include a range of ‘modules’ and has been run annually by Statistics NZ since 2005.