Researcher:

Dr Jay Weerawardena (School of Management)

Funding:

Unfunded

Email/Web link:

j.weerawardena@gsm.uq.edu.au

Faculty of Business, Economics & Law

A UQ study has compared the efforts Australian business managers put into building and nurturing innovative capabilities with their American counterparts.

Dr Jay Weerawardena of UQ's School of Management says a study examining the innovative capacities of Australian business managers has important implications for government policy-planners, in the light of limited local research on innovation.

"I am looking at how the differences in innovative capabilities impact on firms' efforts to gain sustained competitive advantage in Australia compared to the United States and if culture has a role in the differences in American and Australian businesses," Dr Weerawardena said.

"According to research findings, Australia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is 30 percent behind the best performing country, America. This gap is attributed to the differences in innovation in the two countries.

"Therefore a study investigating the differences in innovative capabilities in the two countries will be immensely useful to both the policy-planners and firms pursuing innovation as the key strategy to gain competitive advantage."

The cross-cultural study is an extension of a major study completed by Dr Weerawardena last year into the innovation activity of business organisations in Queensland.

Large and small manufacturing firms participated in the study, which showed that Australian firms, in addition to traditional product and process innovations, pursue non-technological innovations that include marketing methods and managerial systems.

"Queensland firms excelling in innovation are active learners and are highly entrepreneurial in their strategic decisions," Dr Weerawardena said.

The findings of both studies will provide valuable information for government policy-planners to encourage innovation in the Australian manufacturing industry.

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