BUSINESS STRUCTURE AND ARRANGEMENTS


BUSINESS STRUCTURE AND ARRANGEMENTS

Foreign ownership

Businesses were asked to report the percentage of foreign ownership (as at 30 June 2007) by selecting one of the four available options. A definition of foreign ownership was not specified and responses were not checked against any other data sources.

Percentage of foreign ownership(a)(b), by employment size - 2006-07
	Employment size
	0-4 persons	5-19 persons	20-199 persons	200 or more persons	Total
	%	%	%	%	%
Wholly Australian owned	98.2	97.7	93.8	71.7	97.6
Greater than 0% and less than 10%	0.3	0.3	1.2	2.7	0.4
10% to 50%	0.5	0.4	1.2	3.3	0.5
Greater than 50%	1.2	1.5	3.8	22.4	1.6
(a) Proportions are of all businesses in each employment size category.
(b) The sum of component items within employment size categories may not equal 100.0% due to rounding and/or provision of multiple responses, refer to Explanatory Notes 17-19.

Regardless of the employment size group, the majority of businesses reported being Wholly Australian owned. Proportions ranged from 72% for businesses with 200 or more persons employed to 98% for businesses with 0-4 persons employed.

The Mining industry (11%) recorded the highest proportion of businesses with Greater than 50% foreign ownership, followed by Wholesale Trade at 9%.

Innovation-active businesses were almost twice as likely as non innovation-active businesses to have some degree of foreign ownership. For example, in the Information Media and Telecommunications industry, 12% of innovation-active businesses had some percentage of foreign ownership compared to 6% for non innovation-active businesses.


Franchising agreements

Businesses were asked whether they were involved in any franchising agreements during the year ended 30 June 2007. Businesses could be identified as a franchisee (i.e. operated a franchise), franchisor (i.e. controlled a franchise system) or both.

Franchising agreements(a)(b), by employment size - 2006-07
	Employment size
	0-4 persons	5-19 persons	20-199 persons	200 or more persons	Total
	%	%	%	%	%
Franchisee (i.e. operated a franchise)	2.7	7.3	9.6	5.1	4.6
Franchisor (i.e. controlled a franchise system)	0.7	1.2	1.3	4.2	0.9
(a) Proportions are of all business in each employment size category.
(b) Businesses could identify as both a franchisee and franchisor.

Involvement in a franchising agreement as a Franchisee was reported by 5% of all businesses. Businesses with 20-199 persons employed were the most likely to be a Franchisee (10%). The proportion of businesses operating as a Franchisor was highest for businesses with 200 or more persons employed (4%), compared to rates around 1% for businesses within the other employment size ranges.

The industries with the highest proportion of Franchisees were Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services along with Retail Trade, both of which were the only industries to record proportions above 10%.


Collaborative arrangements

Businesses were asked to indicate if they were involved in collaborative arrangements with other businesses during the year ended 30 June 2007. Collaborative arrangements were defined as arrangements where businesses work together for mutual benefit. This included informal collaborative arrangements but excluded straight fee-for-service and franchising arrangements.

Collaborative arrangements(a), by employment size - 2006-07
	Employment size
	0-4 persons	5-19 persons	20-199 persons	200 or more persons	Total
	%	%	%	%	%
Joint research and development	2.4	2.2	2.5	9.3	2.4
Joint buying	2.0	3.5	4.2	6.0	2.6
Joint manufacturing	1.2	0.7	1.0	4.7	1.1
Integrated supply chain(b)	1.6	2.2	1.7	6.8	1.8
Joint marketing or distribution	4.0	5.9	6.0	10.4	4.7
Other collaborative arrangements	2.7	2.0	4.2	6.3	2.6
Any collaborative arrangements	8.7	11.2	14.6	25.0	10.0
No collaborative arrangements	91.3	88.8	85.4	75.0	90.0
(a) Proportions are of all businesses in each employment size category.
(b) Integrated supply chain refers to ongoing coordinated activities between two or more businesses to maximise the storage and production efficiency of a mutual client.

The proportion of businesses reporting any type of collaborative arrangement increased with each successive employment size range. Joint marketing or distribution was the most prevalent, with 5% of all businesses indicating this type of arrangement.

At the industry level, the highest proportion of businesses with any collaborative arrangements was Mining at 19%. By contrast, the Construction industry reported the lowest proportion of businesses involved in any collaborative arrangements at 4%. More than half of all industries reported rates of involvement in collaborative arrangements of 10% or more.

Innovation-active businesses, at 16%, were more than twice as likely to be involved in some type of collaborative arrangements than non innovation-active businesses (6%).