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Sample Design for Additional Selections from Growth Hubs in the Business Characteristics Survey

The ABS received user funding from the Department of Industry (DoI) to survey additional businesses in the 2013-14 Business Characteristics Survey (BCS). The aim was to produce a set of benchmark indicators for five key sectors identified by the DoI as critical to the ongoing strength and growth of the Australian economy, known as “growth hubs”. The five growth hubs are:

1. advanced manufacturing

2. mining equipment, technology and services

3. oil, gas and energy resources

4. food products and agribusiness

5. medical technologies and pharmaceuticals.

More information about DoI’s Industry Growth Centre Initiative can be found on this webpage: http://www.industry.gov.au/industry/Pages/Industry-Growth-Centres.aspx#header

The additional businesses selected for the growth hubs sample will be asked a subset of the questions given to businesses in the BCS and the Business Longitudinal Database (BLD).

The ABS worked with DoI to identify the groups of Australia and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) classes that best matched the five growth hubs. The growth hubs were not mutually exclusive. For example, some ANZSIC classes were included in both the “Advanced Manufacturing” and “Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals” growth hubs.

The ABS Business Survey Methodology (BSM) area then developed a sample design to meet standard error constraints at various levels, such as growth hub by ANZSIC division and growth hub by reported employment class. The key variable of interest was innovation rate (for innovations in goods and services, operations, organisation, or marketing). A single sample allocation process was implemented for all the growth hubs at once, rather than running a separate allocation for each of the growth hubs. This approach allowed the allocation process to take into account strata that were in scope of more than one growth hub.

The growth hub selections were designed to minimise respondent burden. BSM selected as much of the growth hubs sample as possible from the samples that had already been selected for the 2013-14 BCS and the most recent three panels from the BLD. The remaining sample was selected to minimise the overlap with current and future BCS and BLD samples and other major economic collections. There is funding for repeating the additional sampling from growth hubs in a future year. However, at this stage the timing of the next growth hubs collection is uncertain. The selections were designed so that if the collection is repeated in the following year, there will be some sample in common with the current selections. However, if the collection is repeated in three years' time, it may not be possible to achieve much common sample.

Further Information
For more information, please contact Victoria Leaver (02 6252 5445, victoria.leaver@abs.gov.au) or Lyndon Ang (02 6252 5279, lyndon.ang@abs.gov.au).

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