Independent survey reveals Australia is behind in job creation and adoption of technology and social media
A survey conducted by CPA Australia shows that when it comes to innovation, e-commerce and social media Australian small businesses lag well behind regional nehghbours such as China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and New Zealand.
The survey examined about 3000 small business operators across these countries and found that Australia has not kept up with other Asia-Pacific countries in terms of innovation and adoption of technology and social media.
The survey reveals how each country performs on a range of measures, including business confidence, hiring intentions, innovation and adoption of technology and social media.
“We’ve found that when it comes to innovation, applied at the coalface of small business, we are being outperformed by a significant margin by our competitors in Asia and New Zealand,” CPA Australia chief executive Alex Malley says.
“Yes, there are some very innovative small businesses in Australia, however they are unfortunately the exception rather than the rule.
“On the key measure of innovation, looking at the percentage of small businesses that will introduce a new product, service or process in the next 12-months that is new to their market or the world, for Australia it’s only five per cent compared to Indonesia’s 46 per cent. China (32 per cent), Malaysia (29 per cent) and Vietnam (26 per cent) all scored highly on innovation.
“Another key indicator is social media, used by 93 per cent of businesses across Asia, but only around 50 per cent of Australian small businesses” Mallay says.
The survey reveals that Australia is lagging way behind Asia when it comes to e-commerce.
Currently, up to 83 per cent of Asian small businesses generate revenue from online sales compared to only a third in Australia.
The survey says that moving forward, more than 40 per cent Asian small businesses expect to grow their e-commerce presence, while only 8 per cent of Australian small businesses have such plans.
“When it comes to innovation, it must be said that the Prime Minister’s National Innovation and Science Agenda, unveiled at the end of last year, is a significant public policy contribution which has the potential to genuinely enhance our innovative capacities and our appetite for embracing technology.
“The introduction of the crowd-sourced equity funding Bill is also a welcome development which, should it pass, means we’ll have a new way of linking entrepreneurs and their ideas with global investors to help get new products and services off the ground and around the world,” Mallay says.
The results calculated by the survey provide a baseline for the nation’s performance and it can help business, governments and researchers make improvements, he says.