Description: This aggregated data set contains the responses of South African business enterprises on their innovation activities carried out between 2014 and 2016. In completing the questionnaire, enterprises followed a skip pattern, e.g., depending on whether or not they had carried out product or process innovation during the period covered by the survey. Abstract: The South African Business Innovation Survey 2014-16 was designed based on the guidelines of the Oslo Manual. The survey was directly comparable with the core questionnaire for round 4 of the OECD Community Innovation Survey (CIS 4). Following international methodology allows the results of the South African Business Innovation Survey to be usefully compared with the results from other countries.

The South African Business Innovation Survey 2014-16 was based on a random stratified sample of business enterprises from the national business register (or equivalent) and results are extrapolated to the original population. A random stratified sample of 4 950 enterprises was obtained from the Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) business register. A process of sample cleaning identified 759 businesses as invalid because they were either not identifiable or traceable through several methods, duplicates, or inactive businesses. Invalid businesses were excluded and the remaining entries in the database totaled 4191 valid enterprises.

The South African Business Innovation Survey 2014-16 collected primary data and despite implementing an extensive advocacy strategy prior to and as part of the fieldwork, 642 businesses responded to the survey. Although some general organisational information was collected, the survey focused on product and process innovation.

Some of the indicators collected included the following:

Share of firms that introduced a product innovation

Share of firms that introduced a process innovation

Share of firms that introduced a new-to-market product innovation

Sources of information for innovation

Expenditures on innovation [by innovation activity]

Factors hampering innovation in firms

Share of (innovation active) firms that co-operated with foreign partners on innovation

Share of (innovation active) firms that received public financial support for innovation

The key users of the data and findings include government departments, especially the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Ad hoc requests for data are also accommodated and inform academic papers, reports and outputs.

Email survey

Face-to-face interview

Postal survey

Self-completion

Telephone interview

Business enterprises categorised according to the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes for economic activities.

Note: The SIC codes used in the 2010-2012 survey have not changed and were applied to the 2014-2016 survey.

Innovation surveys are based on a random stratified sample of business enterprises from the national business register (or equivalent) and results are extrapolated to the original population. The South African Business Innovation Survey 2014-16 sampling procedure was informed by the structure of the business register of Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), from which a stratified random sample by sector determined on the basis of Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and size of the business enterprise based on turnover was drawn.

The initial sample obtained from Stats SA contained 4 950 businesses. A process of sample cleaning identified 759 businesses as invalid. In particular, these were businesses that were either not identifiable or traceable through several methods, duplicates, or inactive. Invalid businesses were excluded from the original sample, resulting in a final survey sample of 4 191 businesses. After two postal rounds, telephonic and e-mail follow ups and reminders, 642 businesses responded to the survey.

Additionally, a simple random sample non-response survey was conducted, as recommended by the Oslo Manual for surveys that achieve response rates of less than 70%. The purpose of the non-response survey was to correct for any bias that might arise due to businesses that did not respond to the survey being less or more innovative than those businesses that did respond. The non-response survey covered 493 or 15% of the businesses that did not respond to the main survey, and a response rate of 68.3% was achieved. The correction for bias due to non-response was implemented by adjusting the probability weights used to project the sample results to the target population of businesses. For instance, within the industry sector, there were strata where no responses were realised in certain business size classes in some sub-sectors of mining and quarrying, as well as in electricity, gas and water supply. Therefore, sector average weights were used in these sectors. As a result, it was not possible to project or generalise the sample results for these sectors, and hence the industry subgroup by size-class. It is worth noting that the manufacturing industry and services sector were unaffected, and the sample results for these sectors were generalisable at the size-class level.

The sampling procedure used also adjusts the weights for invalid businesses (businesses that were found to have merged or been liquidated).

The results from the survey were then projected to the target population of South African businesses.

Note-: The sampling frame and design is explained in deeper details in the following related document - INNOV 2014-16 Final sample findings - Innovation Survey 2017.