IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v48y2016i55p5379-5395.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why firm size matters: investigating the drivers of innovation and economic performance in New Zealand using the

Author

Listed:
  • Shangqin Hong
  • Les Oxley
  • Philip McCann
  • Trinh Le

Abstract

The performance of the New Zealand (NZ) economy is something of an enigma. Although ranked one (of 144 countries) for four important ‘growth fundamentals’ NZ is ‘middle of the pack’ when it comes to economic growth, productivity and process innovation. Using four iterations (2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011) of the Business Operations Survey, this research seeks to shed some new light on this conundrum by using a multivariate probit regression (mvprobit) approach applied to pooled samples in excess of 22,000 unit record observations of NZ firms. The results suggest that factors including firm size, high perceived quality, investment/research and development (R&D) capability, major technology change, application of formal IP protection and new export markets are systematically and positively related to innovation; while many external issues, such as those related to geography, market structure, business environment, have little influence. At the firm level, innovations in NZ are highly dependent on the firms’ internal ability to develop new technologies and market demand. The (very small) size of firms does matter in NZ, which lacks a major ‘home market’ or a major trade block on its doorstep, such that ultimately, government may need to be involved to maintain a viable scale for domestic R&D.

Suggested Citation

  • Shangqin Hong & Les Oxley & Philip McCann & Trinh Le, 2016. "Why firm size matters: investigating the drivers of innovation and economic performance in New Zealand using the," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(55), pages 5379-5395, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:48:y:2016:i:55:p:5379-5395
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2016.1178843
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2016.1178843
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036846.2016.1178843?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Teimuraz Gogokhia & George Berulava, 2021. "Business environment reforms, innovation and firm productivity in transition economies," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(2), pages 221-245, June.
    2. Sumanjeet Singh, 2018. "The State of IP protection, Exploitation and Valuation: Evidence from Select Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 4(2), pages 159-176, July.
    3. Ryota Nakatani, 2019. "Firm performance and corporate finance in New Zealand," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(13), pages 1118-1124, July.
    4. Askarany, Davood & Spraakman, Gary, 2020. "Regional diversification and financial performance through an excess-capacity theory lens: A new explanation for mixed results," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    5. Ali, Jabir & Reed, Michael R. & Saghaian, Sayed H., 2021. "Determinants of product innovation in food and agribusiness small and medium enterprises: evidence from enterprise survey data of India," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 24(5), May.
    6. Bergner, Sören Martin & Bräutigam, Rainer & Evers, Maria Theresia & Spengel, Christoph, 2017. "The use of SME tax incentives in the European Union," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-006, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Uwizeyemungu, Sylvestre & Poba-Nzaou, Placide & St-Pierre, Josée, 2022. "Back-end information technology resources and manufacturing SMEs’ export commitment: An empirical investigation," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5).
    8. Sylvia Novillo-Villegas & Ricardo Ayala-Andrade & Juan Pablo Lopez-Cox & Javier Salazar-Oyaneder & Patricia Acosta-Vargas, 2022. "A Roadmap for Innovation Capacity in Developing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-20, May.
    9. Brache, Jose & Callagher, Lisa & Husted, Kenneth, 2022. "The effects of interfirm cooperation purpose on export performance: Choosing between local and overseas partners," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 12-22.
    10. Maya Vachkova & Arsalan Ghouri & Haidy Ashour & Normalisa Binti Md Isa & Gregory Barnes, 2023. "Big data and predictive analytics and Malaysian micro-, small and medium businesses," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(8), pages 1-28, August.
    11. Xiuli Sun, 2022. "Human Capital, Market Environment, and Firm Innovation in Chinese Manufacturing Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-20, October.
    12. Trinh Le & Adam B. Jaffe, 2017. "The impact of R&D subsidy on innovation: evidence from New Zealand firms," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 429-452, July.
    13. Sylvia Novillo-Villegas & Patricia Acosta-Vargas & Christian Cruz-Boada & Mateo Garzon & Andre Marin-Dett & Wendy Anzules-Falcones, 2022. "Sustaining the Path for Innovation Capability from a Developing Country Perspective: A Conceptual Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-26, October.
    14. Feng, Gen-Fu & Zheng, Mingbo & Wen, Jun & Chang, Chun-Ping & Chen, Yin E., 2019. "The assessment of globalization on innovation in Chinese manufacturing firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 190-202.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:48:y:2016:i:55:p:5379-5395. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.