ANZ Bank's annual barometer of privately-owned businesses shows a sharp lift in confidence in the New Zealand economy, with 68% of business owners optimistic.
That's up from just 44% in 2012.
The survey found 78% of respondents are slightly to very optimistic about their own businesses, up from 65% last year.
It found 88% expect earnings growth in the next year and one in four firms with sales of more than $2 million a year are targeting new regions or markets while 18% plan to invest in new plant and equipment.
ANZ commercial and agribusiness managing director Graham Turley says businesses are looking at investment in not just plant and equipment but in people, intellectual property and research and development.
"It's really quite a positive theme," he says. "The beautiful thing about it, from my perspective, is that the fundamentals that have been learned over the last five years when people have been recreating their businesses or making sure they survive ... they've taken those fundamentals and now they're saying 'let's not forget them, let's apply them to a growth formula'."
But only one in 12 firms turning over more than $2 million a year are looking at research and development to drive their business performance, even though there have long been concerns that research spending in New Zealand is probably less than "theoretically desireable," says Mr Turley.
