Innovating in traditional industries: bridging the knowledge gap

Abstract

According to the New Zealand Government's Economic and Financial Overview (2014), primary industries alone contribute over 50 per cent of New Zealand’s total export earnings, with primary sector processing (food and forestry) making up more than 50 per cent of the manufacturing sector. Yet there is a view that we are overdependent on these industries and that the trajectory should be shifted to high-value products. This is an important debate and one that should not be taken lightly. Of particular note, we are encouraged to contemplate what Scandinavia has accomplished in growing from traditional industries toward high-value manufacturing. The gap in our knowledge is not so much whether more high-value manufacturing is needed to build economic prosperity, but how we can innovate in and around our traditional industries to this end. We need to understand the perceived barriers to innovation, and how traditional industries interact with other industries – for example, information and communications technology (ICT), engineering, and manufacturing.