1. Objectives of the Study
One of the most valuable aspects of the work undertaken in these studies is the perspective it provides on changes and issues confronting companies. The longitudinal nature of the work yields benefits in terms of being able to observe the success or otherwise of particular strategies, especially in the way they affect export growth. One of the areas highlighted by this longer-term study of 30 firms is the extent of the changes that have occurred in the ownership, management and performance of companies.
There are two broad objectives underpinning the 2002 study:
- To build on the increasingly valuable longitudinal information base that has been established from interviewing the same companies every two years for the past decade.
- To focus on the growth process within the companies interviewed and particularly the part that ownership, scale and location play in determining growth
We have identified firms that have grown significantly over the past decade and tried to isolate the main events/ factors that have influenced their growth. To provide a contrast, and perhaps highlight the important ingredients to growth, we have also identified a group of companies that have not grown (or grown only slowly) over the past decade and teased out the reasons behind their relatively weak performance.
In each of the in-depth interviews we have focused on the relevance of size or scale and location or distance from key markets, to the firm's growth performance. What advantages/ disadvantages does the firm see in its scale and location and what strategies has the firm developed to address any issues it perceives?
In the five previous studies ownership has cropped-up time and again as an issue affecting strategy, growth, investment, etc. Within the sample of firms covered in this study more than half have experienced some change in ownership over the past five years. An important objective of the current study is the impact ownership has on firms' ability to expand exports.
To an extent scale, location and ownership are related issues with respect to export growth.
The interviews build on, rather than replicate, the information collected in the Business Practices and Performance study of around 3000 firms. This study focuses on some specific aspects within the traditional areas - performance, strategy, marketing, labour market issues, finance and production. By visiting the same firms over time we are able to see how firms' perceptions of these issues change over time and how they respond to them, rather than simply observing them.
One of the weaknesses of this study is that it is narrowly based. Conclusions are being drawn from the experiences of just 30 manufacturing export companies that have not been randomly selected. Nonetheless, the firms represent around a third of the increase in manufactured export receipts, and cover a range of firm sizes, product markets, type of ownership and performance. In this sense the conclusions are likely to reflect the experiences of a significant swathe of manufacturing export activity.
1.1 Key Features of the Current Study
In this study we have interviewed 30 firms, 16 for the fifth or sixth time. Twenty-five of the firms interviewed this year were also interviewed in 1999. Three new firms were added, two of whom were founded since 1990.
The current study covers companies in the following sectors:
| Sector | Number of firms |
|---|
| Clothing and footwear | 6 |
| Iron and steel products | 2 |
| Machinery and equipment | 6 |
| Electrical / electronic | 6 |
| Communications equipment | 4 |
| Vehicle components | 3 |
| Other | 3 |
1.2 Structure of the Report
The current report is the sixth in a series that began in 1991. The reports provide an update on the state of manufacturing exports both from the point of view of aggregate statistics and also from the collective view of 30 significant manufacturing export companies.
In the next chapter we examine the performance of New Zealand's manufacturing export sector in the context of past trends, other countries' performance, and shifts in the composition of products and markets. We also comment on the economic environment faced by local manufacturing export firms over the past three years.
In previous reports we have focused on changes between studies. However, given the increasing history behind this series of studies we take the opportunity in Chapter 3 to outline some of the most significant changes that we have observed within firms and across firms since 1991.
A close examination of the firm-level growth process is one of the key objectives of the 2002 study, and it is the focus of Chapter 4. In particular we outline the characteristics that seem to be common amongst fast growing firms and those that appear to typify slower growing firms.
In Chapters 5, 6 and 7 we look in detail at the three broad issues that may have a bearing on firm-level growth amongst manufacturing export businesses - scale, location and ownership.
Product distribution has been a regular theme in previous studies. In this report we have allocated a chapter (Chapter 8) to a discussion of distribution because it is such a critical part of the growth process amongst export firms.
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