In Australia, SMEs are an increasingly important engine of innovation.
As research and development (R&D) spending by large firms has retreated, the SME share of national R&D spend has risen to 55% in 2022 from around 30% in 2007.
At the same time, there has been a fundamental shift in who holds patents, from large firms to SMEs, linked to change in who innovates, how and to what end.
Summary
The study used data in the Australian Bureau of Statistics Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment (BLADE), providing information on the full population of active Australian businesses between 2002 and 2022 (fiscal years).
BLADE includes the Intellectual Property Longitudinal Research Dataset (IPLORD) providing data on firms’ stocks and flows of intellectual property (IP) applications and grants. Small and medium enterprises are defined as employing between 1 and 199 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, and large firms as employing 200+ FTEs.