Evaluation of the BIZ Business Development Programme
January 2001
This year the Ministry commissioned an independent and comprehensive evaluation of the BIZ business development programme. This has been carried out by a consortium made up of Business and Economic Research Limited, the National Research Bureau and the New Zealand Centre for SME Research at Massey University. Jim Anderton, the Minister for Industry and Regional Development, officially released the results on 23 January 2001.
The evaluation included a survey of 800 small and medium enterprises throughout New Zealand, a survey of 800 BIZ clients, interviews with 32 contracted providers of BIZ services, a "Mystery Shopper" trial of the BIZinfo information services, in-depth focus group discussions with Maori and Pacific business people and an analysis of the management and administration of the BIZ programme.
Reports Available
The overview report which summarises the different parts of the research and makes recommendations to the Ministry is available. See Overview Report - BERL - November 2000
For readers interested in the background detail, the other reports are:
What Happens Next?
Results from the evaluation will feed into the Ministry?s and Industry NZ?s thinking about possible improvements to the BIZ scheme. Decisions on detailed changes to the programme will be announced later in the year by Industry NZ (now New Zealand Trade and Enterprise), and will appear on their website.
The Small Business Unit of Industry NZ has started the process of getting BIZ services in place for the financial year beginning 1 July 2001 by calling for initial Expressions of Interest from those interested in being contracted to provide services. Further information on this is available on the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise website or
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