BOS Data Collection 2020

Reference period

The survey was posted out in August 2020. We collected information for the latest financial year for which the business had data available when they completed the questionnaire.

Consistency with other periods

The Business Operations Survey is a modular survey that contains a repeating business operations module, an alternating information and communications technology (ICT) or innovation module, and a contracted module. The modular structure means the published content changes each year.

Stats NZ works with other organisations to develop the content for this survey.

Table 1 - Business Operations Survey: Module contents

|--------|------------|----|-----|-----| |Year| Module A | Module B | Module C | Module D| |2005| Business operations| Innovation| Business practices| N/A| |2006| Business operations| ICT | Employment practices| N/A| |2007| Business operations | Innovation | International engagement | N/A| |2008| Business operations| ICT | Business strategy and skills | N/A| |2009| Business operations | Innovation | Business practices | N/A | |2010| Business operations| ICT | Price and wage setting | Financing| |2011| Business operations| Innovation | International engagement | N/A| |2012| Business operations | ICT |Impact of regulation | N/A| |2013 | Business operations| Innovation | Business practices | Skill needs and recruitment | |2014 | Business operations | ICT |Skills acquisition | Finance| |2015| Business operations | Innovation| International engagement |N/A| |2016| Business operations | ICT | Regulation | Skills Acquisition | |2017| Business operations | Innovation| Business Practices | Health and Safety Practices | |2018| Business operations | ICT | Changing Nature of Work | Business Finance | |2019| Business operations | Innovation | International engagement | N/A | |2020| Business operations | ICT | COVID-19 | N/A | In addition, each module in the survey has its own specific objectives. The modules included in the Business Operations Survey 2020 and their objectives are listed below.

Module A: Business operations

Provides a longitudinal series of information about business performance. This data helps develop models that investigate causal relationships. As well as traditional measures of performance such as turnover and profitability, there is also a need to collect information on such areas as export intensity. The purpose of collecting information is to analyse relationships between the environment in which a business operates and the results it achieves.

Module B: Information and communications technology (ICT)

Module B alternates between innovation, in odd years, and information and communication technology (ICT), in even years. The purpose of this module is to provide comprehensive, official statistics on:

• computers, ICT services, and security

• impact of ICT

• internet use and connection

• purchases and sales of goods and services via the internet

• web presence

• computer networks

• cellphone use

Module C: COVID-19

The module provides information on how New Zealand businesses were impacted by and responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

In particular, businesses were asked to consider the period between March 2020, when the country went into alert level 4, until June 2020, when the country was back in alert level 1. However, as parts of the country moved up and down between alert levels in 2020, it is likely that some respondents may have based their responses on impacts from and responses to later alert level changes.

The module collects information on how the pandemic affected:

• the operations of businesses, particularly the extent to which they operated at different COVID-19 alert levels

• staff employment

• sales and supply of goods and services

As well as how businesses responded to these impacts.

Data presentation

Find more data for Business Operations and Innovation modules on Infoshare. A machine-readable zipped csv file is available for COVID-19. More data for COVID-19 2020 can also be found on Infoshare.

Sampling Procedure

Sampling selection

The sample includes an oversample of Māori authorities. Responses from Māori authorities are used to help Stats NZ and other agencies learn what makes a business a Māori business. As the sample for the Business Operations Survey is a random sample survey, the information gathered from these Māori authorities is only included if the same businesses are selected through the random selection process.

Table 2 - Business Operations Survey: 2020 sampling error by size or industry

How to use the sampling error

Sampling errors can be measured. They quantify the variability that occurs by chance because a sample rather than an entire population is surveyed. For example, if the estimated number of businesses in the construction industry is 6,279 with a sampling error of 2.5 percent, this means there would be a 95 percent chance the true number of businesses in the construction industry lies between 6,122 and 6,436 businesses.

The sampling error detailed in table 2 represents the variability for estimates published at ANZSIC06 level 1 or business size. We can provide sampling error for the ANZSIC06 level 2 on request.

Response Rate

The Business Operations Survey is a sample survey. For the 2020 survey, we selected a sample of 9,021 from a total population of 45,650 businesses. The response rate reached 81%, higher than the target response rate of 80%.