By ELLEN READ
New Zealand's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) trail their OECD counterparts as exporters.
SMEs are the lifeblood of the economy, but few are taking advantage of international market opportunities.
A group of University of Auckland academics blames a lack of research on why these companies aren't exporting, and the
consequent lack of policy to help them to do so, for the low number.
Their research paper - Encouraging more SMEs to take their big OE - is published in the university's latest Business Review.
It reports that just 2.5 per cent of local SMEs export compared with 5-10 per cent in Australia, 12 per cent in the United States, 14 per cent in Canada, 16-20 per cent in the UK and 25 per cent in Ireland. (The New Zealand data is based on firms with up to 100 fulltime equivalent workers.)
Authors Eugene Bowen, Nigel Haworth and Heather Wilson say work needs to be done on understanding small businesses and why they do or don't target the export market, then support programmes, services and policy could be better targeted.
The authors also ask whether SMEs not growing through international activities are growing at all?
"New Zealand firms travel the wealth-creation road in the family car, with room for the family but few others," the paper says.
"Contrast this with wealth creation in America, where large numbers of people are engaged, participate and benefit from the creation and growth of companies. To extend the analogy, the US travels to wealth creation in a bus."
Their review of literature on local SMEs going international reveals an incomplete understanding of the motives, advantages and drivers of doing so - and left the authors unclear about why many SMEs with the potential to export choose not to.
