BOS Data Collection 2016

Reference period The survey was posted out in August 2016. We collected information for the latest financial year for which the business had data available at the time 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 content changes each year as results are released. Stats NZ works with other organisations to develop the mix of 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| Note: ICT – information and communication technology; N/A – not applicable. In addition, each module in the survey has its own specific objectives. The modules included in the Business Operations Survey 2016 and their objectives are listed below. Module A: Business operations Provides a longitudinal series of information about business performance. This will help development of 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: Regulation This module collects data that was also collected in 2012. Following consultation with key stakeholders we removed questions which were no longer relevant. This information was of interest as there is a lack of good quality evidence on how regulation affects different types of businesses in New Zealand. The objectives of this module echo and extend those of the overall survey. The module collects information on a range of practices and behaviours associated with either current, past, or future regulation that may have either positive or negative impacts on a business's performance. This module has topics that measure: • business factors • impacts of regulation • compliance with regulation • regulation for resource management • impact that complying with regulation have on the business's performance • compliance costs. Module D: Skills acquisition This module collects data on skills, training, and recruitment that was previously collected in 2014. The module collected information on: • recruitment of staff, including barriers to recruitment • internal skill gaps • training, both internal and external • barriers to training Data presentation Find more data for Business Operations and ICT modules on Infoshare. A machine-readable zipped csv file is available for Regulation and Skills Acquisition modules for year 2016. For previous data for Regulation and Skills Acquisition modules use NZ.Stat. Sampling Procedure Sample 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 presents the sample errors for the business size and industry groups in the survey. Table 2 - Business Operations Survey: 2016 sample errors by size and industry Business size or industry category Sampling error (percentage) Business size 6–19 employees 0.8 20–49 employees 2.6 50–99 employees 10.3 100+ employees 10.6 Industry Agriculture, forestry & fishing 2.7 Mining 3.7 Manufacturing 1.6 Electricity, gas, water & waste services 3.3 Construction 3.4 Wholesale trade 2.8 Retail trade 3.7 Accommodation & food services 4.5 Transport, postal & warehousing 3.5 Information media & telecommunications 3.3 Financial & insurance services 2.5 Rental, hiring & real estate services 5.1 Professional, scientific & technical services 2.5 Administrative & support services 3.1 Education & training 4.3 Health care & social assistance 2.9 Arts & recreation services 5.3 Other services 5.2 Overall 1.0 How to use the sampling errors 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 4,566 with a sampling error of 3.4 percent, this means there would be a 95 percent chance the true number of businesses in the construction industry lies between 4,411 and 4,721 businesses. The sampling errors detailed in table 2 show the sample errors for the count estimates published at ANZSIC06 level 1 and business size. We can provide sample errors for the ANZSIC06 level two and percentages on request. We can also provide sample errors for specific results if requested. Response Rate The Business Operations Survey is a sample survey. For the 2016 survey, we selected a sample of 7,995 from a total population of 39,453 businesses. The response rate reached 75%, the target response rate of 80% was not achieved due to the impact of November 2016 earthquake. en-NZ