Reference period

The survey was posted out in August 2023. 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 one or more contracted modules. 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	NA
2012	Business operations	ICT	Impact of regulation	NA
2013	Business operations	Innovation	Business practices	Skill needs and recruitment
2014	Business operations	ICT	Skills acquisition	Finance
2015	Business operations	Innovation	International engagement	NA
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
2021	Business operations	Innovation	The Transition to a Low Emissions Economy	N/A
2022	Business operations	ICT	Price and wage setting	Finance
2023	Business operations	Innovation	Business practices	Climate change

In addition, each module in the survey has its own specific objectives. The modules included in the Business Operations Survey 2023 and their objectives are listed below.

New questions, changes to existing questions and removed questions

In 2023, a number of new questions were added to the questionnaire as well as changes made to existing questions, while some questions were removed.

The following sections on each module list out the significant new and changed questions and contain a description of the information these questions provide.

A full list of the new questions and changed questions, by question number, can be found in Appendix 1 and a list of the questions that were removed can be found in Appendix 2 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.

New questions added this year covered:

Non-standard financial year

This question was included up until 2010 and has been re-instated as there have been additional financial questions added to BOS this year.

Intangible investment

This question collects information on intangible investment not related to innovation.

Proportion of skilled and unskilled positions

This question provides context for other questions about labour market tightness.

Vacancies

This group of questions captures information on businesses vacancies, about cyclical labour market tightness by capturing the number of vacancies, and the difficulty filling those vacancies.

Skill gaps and recruitment difficulties

This set of questions collects information about skill gaps among current staff, how businesses are affected by recruitment difficulties and skill gaps and how they have responded to them.

Location of competitors

This question collects information on the location of competitors.

Expected changes

This question captures businesses’ expectations of business conditions in the next financial year.

There were also changes made to questions on

Sales from exports

The response format was changed from a percentage to a dollar value. Additionally, a routing question was introduced earlier on to guide businesses past the following questions about exports if they're not relevant.

Overseas direct investment

Businesses are now also asked how they gained new overseas direct investments in the last financial year only.

R&D

The definition of Research and Development (R&D) and inclusions was updated.

Comparison with competition

A new item (‘environmental sustainability’) was added, and the question wording was changed from ‘major’ to ‘main competitors’ to match the new Competition – location question.

Comparison of core technology

The language in this question was changed from ‘core equipment’ to ‘core technology’ and a new response option ‘ahead’ was added.

Māori business identity

The words ‘identify as’ were replaced with ‘consider itself to be’ and a change made to ensure all respondents answer the ownership question, not just those that consider themselves to be a Māori business.

Module B: Innovation

This module gathers information on what businesses focus their innovation activity on, how they support innovation, and financial outlay on product development.

It also seeks to gather information on:

• levels of business innovation

• how and why businesses collaborate with other businesses and institutions to innovate

• factors affecting the ability of businesses to innovate

• outcomes of innovation for businesses, including its effect on exports.

No new questions were added to the questionnaire for 2023, however the three questions on operational, organisational, and marketing process innovations were replaced with a single process innovation question. The option of ‘don’t know’ was also added to the yes / no options.

Additionally, the expenditure categories for design, marketing and market research, and other expenditure were combined. A note stating ‘Don’t include GST’ was also added.

Module C: Business Practices

This module collects data on a range of practices (including management practices and behaviours) and was also collected in 2005, 2009, 2013, and 2017. The module continually collected information on:

• strategy, goals, and planning

• customers

• suppliers

• information and benchmarking

• employee practices

• quality and process.

Several new questions were added in 2023.

Employee benefits

A new question on employee benefits was added. It collects information on what flexible working options and support are available to employees.

Standard location of work

There is a new question that collects information on the standard work location for staff: at premises owned or rented by the business, at the staff member’s home or at another location.

Rationale behind the working-from-home option

A question was added to gauge whether businesses want their employees to work from home to reduce overheads.

Formal policies and actions in place to promote an inclusive and flexible workplace

The last new question added into this module was about formal policies and actions that are in place to promote an inclusive and flexible workplace.

There were also changes made to questions on

Major customers

The ‘other businesses’ options were re-worded to make the difference between them clearer and to incorporate situations where a service was on-sold or provided to another business’s customers (e.g. providing call centre services).

Suppliers

An instruction was also added to the number of suppliers question for businesses to exclude common business items. It had been found that some businesses included necessities, like electricity, while others were not.

Type of training

A new matrix item (Māori language, culture, Treaty of Waitangi training’) was added. The response options were also ‘fixed’ so that they didn’t overlap. For example, we changed ‘25% or less’ and ‘50% or less’ to ‘1-25%’ and ’26-50%’.

Module D: Climate Change

The aim of the climate change module is to provide information on the experiences and responses driven by climate change and climate change related policies and market influences. This module was introduced for the first time in 2023.

These new questions include:

Impacts of climate change

This question collected information about the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on businesses.

Expected impacts from climate change

This question collects information about businesses’ expectations of the direct and indirect impacts of climate change over the next five years.

Responses to climate change

This question was developed to capture how businesses are responding to climate change, providing information on examples of mitigation, adaptation, and opportunities arising from climate change.

Driving factors

This question collects information about the relative importance of the factors driving businesses’ responses to climate change.

Data presentation

A machine-readable zipped csv file is available for the Business Operations, Innovation, Business Practices, and Climate Change modules 2023. More data for Business Operations module can also be found on Infoshare.

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: 2023 sampling error by size or industry

Business size or industry	Category	Sampling error(%)
Business size
	6-19 employees	0.7
	20-49 employees	2.4
	50-99 employees	9.5
	100+ employees	9.6
Industry
	Agriculture, forestry & fishing	2.4
	Mining	3.4
	Manufacturing	1.5
	Electricity, gas, water & waste services	2.7
	Construction	2.7
	Wholesale trade	2.5
	Retail trade	3.4
	Accommodation & food services	3.8
	Transport, postal & warehousing	3.3
	Information media & telecommunications	3.0
	Financial & insurance services	2.3
	Rental, hiring & real estate services	4.4
	Professional, scientific & technical services	2.0
	Administrative & support services	2.6
	Education and training	4.0
	Health care & social assistance	2.6
	Arts & recreation services	4.9
	Other services	4.7
	Overall	0.9

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 7,440 with a sampling error of 2.7 percent, this means there would be a 95 percent chance the true number of businesses in the construction industry lies between 7,239 and 7,641 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 2023 survey, we selected a sample of 9,783 from a total population of 48,990 businesses. The response rate reached 75.1%, lower than the target response rate of 80%.

Appendix 1: New and changed questions

This appendix documents the questions that were new or changed in the questionnaire for 2023 for each module, when compared to the last time the modules were run.

See Appendix 2 for more information about the questions that were removed.

Module A: business operations

Number	Question	New	Changed
A02	Only include information for the business named on the front page.		X
A05	What is the balance date of the financial year you will use for this questionnaire?		X
A06	Did that last financial year cover a 12-month period?	X
A07	In the last financial year, did this business have any sales of goods and services that came from exports?		X
A08	For the last financial year, what was the NZD value of this business’s sales from exports?		X
A09	In the last financial year, did this business enter any new export markets?		X
A10	As at the end of the last financial year, did any individual or business located overseas hold an ownership interest or shareholding in this business?		X
A11	As at the end of the last financial year, did this business hold any ownership interest or shareholding in a business located overseas (including its own branch, subsidiary, or sales office)?		X
A12	In the last financial year, did this business gain any new ownership interests or shareholdings in businesses located overseas (including in its own branch, subsidiary, or sales office)?		X
A13	Mark all that apply. How did this business gain those new overseas ownership interests or shareholdings?		X
A14	For the last financial year, how much did this business spend on each of the following (including in-house costs)?	X
A15	In the last financial year, did this business undertake or fund any research and development (R&D) activities?		X
A16	For the last financial year, how much did this business spend on R&D activities?		X
A17	Estimate the percentage of R&D expenditure from question 16 that relates to in-house R&D activities.		X
A19	In the last financial year, approximately what percentage of positions in this business were for the following roles?.	X
A20	In the last financial year, did this business have any vacancies?	X
A21	In the last financial year, how many vacancies did this business have for the following roles?	X
A22	In the last financial year, to what extent did this business experience difficulty filling the vacancies in question 21 with suitable applicants?	X
A23	In the last financial year, what were the main reasons some of this business’s staff did not have all the skills required to do their jobs?	X
A24	In the last financial year, to what extent did this business do the following in response to recruitment difficulties or skill gaps?	X
A25	In the last financial year, did recruitment difficulties or skill gaps affect this business in any of the following ways?	X
A27	Where are this business’s main competitors located?	X
A28	How would you describe this business’s competition?		X
A29	How do you think this business compares to its main competitors on each of the following?		X
A31	Thinking about the next financial year, how do you expect the following factors will change?	X
A32	In the last financial year, did this business develop or introduce any new or significantly improved goods, services, or processes?		X
A33	How does this business’s core technology (that is used in the production of this business’s main goods or services) compare with the best that is commonly available?		X
A34	In the last financial year, how much did this business’s core technology change?In the last financial year, how much did this business’s core technology change?		X
A40	The next questions ask about businesses that have Māori identity and ownership.		X
A41	Does this business consider itself to be a Māori business?		X
A43	How much of this business is owned by people who whakapapa to / descend from Māori?		X

Module B: innovation

Number	Question	New	Changed
B02	For the purpose of this survey innovation is broadly defined.		X
B03	In the last 2 financial years, did this business introduce onto the market any new or significantly improved goods or services?		X
B06	For the last financial year, please estimate the percentage of sales for this business that came from those new or significantly improved goods or services.		X
B07	In the last 2 financial years, did this business implement any new or significantly improved processes in the following areas?		X
B08	If you answered ‘yes’ to any part of question 7 above	X
B09	Were any of those new or significantly improved processes:		X
B10	Were any of those new or significantly improved processes required because this business introduced new goods or services?		X
B11	In the last 2 financial years, did this business do any of the following?		X
B12	For the last financial year, please estimate this business’s combined expenditure on product development and related activities:		X
B13	In the last 2 financial years, did this business abandon any activity that was intended to result in the development or introduction of new or significantly improved goods, services, or processes?		X
B14	In the last 2 financial years, did this business start but not yet complete any activities to develop or introduce any new or significantly improved goods, services, or processes?		X
B15	Where to next?		X
B16	In the last 2 financial years, what were the reasons that this business tried to innovate?		X
B17	In the last 2 financial years, did this business find any of the following important as a source of information or ideas for innovation?		X
B19	In the last 2 financial years, did this business have any co-operative arrangements for the purpose of innovation?		X
B21	Which of the following does this business or the parent company use to protect intellectual property?		X
B22	In the last 2 financial years, to what degree did the following factors hamper this business’s ability to innovate?		X
B23	In the last 2 financial years, has this business had any contact with Callaghan Innovation?		X

Module C: business practices

Number	Question	New	Changed
C02	How important are the following to the strategies of this business?		X
C03	In the last 2 financial years, to what extent did this business focus on the following types of markets?		X
C04	Thinking about the goals set for this business, how far ahead does this business plan?		X
C05	Are those goals mainly developed through formal or informal processes?		X
C06	When developing goals, how often does this business incorporate the requirements of:		X
C09	Does this business regularly communicate with its employees about:		X
C12	How often does this business systematically measure customer satisfaction?		X
C14	Which of the following groups are major customers for this business’s goods and services?	X
C16	How closely does this business work with its suppliers to improve each other’s processes?		X
C19	How many major suppliers does this business have? Only include suppliers that this business directly purchases from.	X
C22	In the last 2 financial years, to what extent did this business focus on the following when assessing performance?		X
C27	In the last financial year, what percentage of employees in this business had their job satisfaction formally assessed?		X
C28	In the last financial year, what percentage of employees in this business had formal performance reviews (consistent methods that are recognised and regularly used)?		X
C29	What percentage of employees in this business are currently on ‘pay for performance’ schemes (eg productivity based incentives, profit sharing, bonuses, etc)?		X
C30	In the last financial year, please estimate the percentage of employees in this business who participated in training.		X
C31	In the last financial year, please estimate the percentage of employees in this business who participated in the following types of training:		X
C33	Does this business offer the following to its employees?	X
C34	On a typical day, what percentage of staff (working proprietors and employees) work at the following locations?	X
C35	Does this business encourage its employees to work from home?	X
C36	Which of the following does this business currently have formal policies or actions in place for?	X

Module D: climate change

Number	Question	New	Changed
D02	In the last 2 financial years, to what extent do you consider this business has experienced the following as a result of climate change (including climate change-related policies and market responses)?	X
D03	In the next 5 financial years, to what extent do you expect this business to experience the following as a result of climate change (including climate change-related policies and market responses)?	X
D04	In the last 2 financial years, did this business make changes in any of the following areas?	X
D05	In the last 2 financial years, how important were the following in driving this business to do the things selected in question 4 ?	X

Appendix 2: Removed questions

Some questions were removed from the questionnaire for 2023. These questions and the reasons they were removed are documented in this appendix for each module.

Module A: business operations

Sales from tourism
This question was removed because participants found it vague and hard to answer, and data users don’t use the information collected.

New investment
This question was removed to make room for higher-priority questions.

Employment
The occupational split in these questions was too broad to be useful and hard for respondents to answer. These questions were replaced with the new employment questions about vacancies, recruitment difficulties, and skill gaps.

Business performance
The question related to the percentage of goods and services provided to customers on time was removed to make room for higher-priority questions.

Other business factors
The question about the year the businesses commenced operations was removed because this information is available from other sources.

Module B: innovation

Co-operative arrangements
A couple of questions were removed to make room for higher-priority questions. Theses questions were related to the activities done in co-operative arrangements and the reasons to engage in co-operative arrangements.

Module C: business practices

Employee practices
This question was removed because the ‘yes’ response rate was close to 100%, providing no useful information.

Supply chains
All three questions on supply chains were removed. The basic components of the questions have been incorporated in the Customers and Suppliers sections in Module C. The other parts of these questions were specific to a policy issue in 2017 and weren’t needed any more.

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