Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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SOURCES OF IDEAS AND INFORMATION FOR INNOVATION

Innovation-active businesses were asked to indicate where they had sourced ideas and information for innovation. Businesses could select more than one source and a ranking of importance was not required.

Sources of ideas or information for innovation(a)(b), by employment size, 2010 - 11
	0-4 persons	5-19 persons	20-199 persons	200 or more persons	Total
	%	%	%	%	%
Within the business or related company	61.5	66.7	74.5	86.3	65.3
Clients, customers or buyers	41.8	37.2	39.2	27.6	39.5
Suppliers	25.7	30.7	28.0	15.4	27.9
Competitors and other businesses from the same industry	28.5	28.6	29.1	29.0	28.6
Consultants	15.7	17.2	25.9	44.8	17.8
Universities or other higher education institutions	3.9	2.3	2.4	3.4	3.1
Government agencies	3.0	5.8	8.1	7.4	4.8
Private non-profit research institutions	0.6	1.3	0.9	0.9	0.9
Commercial laboratories/research and development enterprises	1.5	1.0	0.3	2.1	1.2
Websites, journals, research papers, publications	27.6	28.3	22.3	15.8	27.1
Professional conferences, seminars, meetings, trade shows	19.0	21.3	24.4	18.1	20.5
Industry associations	14.4	16.9	18.9	13.7	15.9
(a) Proportions are of innovation-active businesses in each output category.
(b) Businesses that were innovation-active were asked for the sources of ideas or information for innovation. Businesses could identify more than one source.

Innovation-active businesses were most likely to source their ideas and information for the development of innovation from within the business or related company (65%), followed by clients, customers or buyers (40%).

Businesses with 200 or more persons employed were nearly three times more likely to source their ideas and information for innovation from consultants (45%) than businesses with 0-4 persons employed (16%). More than one in four businesses with 0-4 and 5-19 persons employed reported sourcing their ideas and information for innovation from websites, journals, research papers, publications (both 28%), while 16% of businesses with 200 or more persons employed reported the use of this source.

Across all industries, the most frequently reported source of ideas or information for innovation was from within the business or related company. This ranged from 58% of businesses in the Construction industry to 81% of businesses in the Mining industry.

The use of universities or other higher education institutions, government agencies, private non-profit research institutions and commercial laboratories/research and development enterprises were among the lowest reported sources of ideas and information for innovation across most industries. The Health care and social assistance industry was an exception with 12% of businesses reporting sourcing ideas from government agencies.

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