Productivity and sustainable business

How can New Zealand industries, enterprises and organisations enhance their performance against world-class benchmarks and grow in sustainable ways?

New Zealand suffers from a lack of scale and technological intensity and from low productivity, which contributes to a weaker economy and the loss of highly-skilled workers to larger economies. Demographic challenges (ageing, ethnicity etc.) assume particular importance in this context. Economic, environmental and social sustainability are interrelated issues: in the long run, improved productivity in New Zealand needs to be achieved in ways that are sustainable for investors, workers, communities and the environment.

Research projects funded under this theme address important questions relating to the productivity and sustainability of New Zealand’s industries, enterprises and organisations, and the financial, ethical, legal, regulatory and policy framework that relates to them.

Research stories