Queensland businesses are less innovative than their American counterparts, commission report finds
Queensland’s small business sector is characterised by low levels of innovation, risk-taking and tech-savviness, the state’s Small Business Commission has found.
A commission report, published on Tuesday, found most Queensland small business owners cited stability as their central motivator rather than growth.
Queensland Small Business Commissioner Dominique Lamb said the outlook was “pretty stark” for many within the sector.
Ms Lamb cited Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman data that found 43 per cent of Australian small businesses made no profit at all.
The ombudsman found that 75 per cent of Australian small business owners made below-national-average wages.
The commissioner said their report found Queensland small businesses were more likely to stay in their “comfort zone” and less likely to adopt new technologies or business analytics.
“What they’re motivated by the most is their customers and their competitors — less about innovation,” Ms Lamb said.
“They’re absolutely not risk-takers and they tend to not be as proactive as we might think.”
The report found Queensland small businesses were less motivated to enter new markets, develop new products, or significantly alter the original business model.
It also found that Queensland owners were unlikely to seek outside advice and assistance or expend effort in network opportunities.
Ms Lamb said many owners expressed interest in adopting new technology but lacked the time to implement it into their businesses.
She said many businesses lacked basic accounting software and other tools to manage their finances, and she hoped the report would help the Queensland government cater to the sector’s needs.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed that, over the past four years, Queensland had the second-highest rates of business failure behind the Australian Capital Territory.
The data showed that 36 per cent of businesses that existed in June 2019 were permanently closed down by June 2023.
In that time period, the failure rates were even worse among new businesses at 49.4 per cent.
A labour of love
The commission report’s lead author Olav Muurlink said Queensland entrepreneurs were considerably more conservative than their American counterparts.
The Central Queensland University associate professor said many Queensland business owners saw their work as a “labour of love” rather than a profit maximisation opportunity.
Dr Muurlink said many Queensland operators merely saw growth as a means to an end, rather than the end in itself.
“There’s a traditional sense of small business entrepreneurs as being risk-savvy, but that tends to come from an American view of entrepreneurship,” he said.
“We found that Queensland small businesses were considerably more risk-averse.
“The people we spoke to were clearly passionate about their product and proud of what they were doing, and saw a purpose to their work that went beyond profit.”
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