Archive:Innovation statistics

Data from January 2015. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database. Planned article update: January 2017.

This article discusses the innovativeness of the enterprises in the European Union (EU). It reports the state of innovation and focuses on some features and key aspects of the development of innovations implemented by the enterprises. Innovation forms part of the Europe 2020 strategy for its role in creating job opportunities, making enterprises more competitive in the global market, improving the quality of life and in contributing to a more sustainable growth. Encouraging and stimulating innovation is one of the main objectives of the European policies. The Community Innovation Survey (CIS) provides statistics broken down by countries, types of innovators, economic activities and size classes. The survey is currently carried out every two years across the European Union, some EFTA countries and EU candidate countries.

Figure 1: Shares of innovative enterprises, 2010-12
(in % of all enterprises)- Source: Eurostat (inn_cis8_type)

Table 1: Shares of innovative enterprises by main type of innovation, 2010-12
(in % of all enterprises)- Source: Eurostat (inn_cis8_type)

Table 2:Shares of process innovative enterprises by implementation type, 2010-12- Source: Eurostat (inn_cis8_spec)

Figure 2: Sources of information for product and/or process innovations by degree of importance in EU Member States, 2010-12 (1)
(in % of all product and/or process innovative enterprises) - Source: Eurostat (inn_cis8_sou)

Figure 3: Shares of product and/or process innovative enterprises using information from suppliers by degree of importance, 2010-12
(in % of all product and/or process innovative enterprises) (1)- Source: Eurostat (inn_cis8_sou)

Figure 4: Methods for maintaining or increasing the competitiveness product and process innovations by degree of importance in EU Member States, 2010-12(1)
(in % of all product and/or process innovative enterprises) - Source: Eurostat (inn_cis8_comp)

Figure 5: Highly important goals in innovative and non-innovative enterprises in EU Member States, 2010-12 (1)
(% of all innovative and non-innovative enterprises) - Source: Eurostat (inn_cis8_goals)

Figure 6: Highly important strategies in innovative and non-innovative enterprises in EU Member States, 2010-12 (1)
(% of all innovative and non-innovative enterprises) - Source: Eurostat (inn_cis8_strat)

Main statistical findings

Extent of innovation

During the period 2010-12, almost half of the enterprises in the European Union (EU-28) have reported innovation activity (48.9 %). Compared to the period 2008-10, the share of innovative enterprises has decreased by 3.9 points of percentages. Among the EU Member States, the highest shares of innovative enterprises during the period 2010–12 (see Figure 1) have been observed in Germany (66.9 % of all enterprises), Luxembourg (66.1 %), Ireland (58.7 %) and Italy (56.1 %). The lowest shares have been recorded in Bulgaria (27.4 %), Poland (23.0 %) and Romania (20.7 %).

Table 1 shows the shares of enterprises by type of innovation implemented between 2010 and 2012 namely product, process, organisation and marketing innovation.

At the European level, more than one quarter (27.5 %) of the enterprises reported organisational innovation. Marketing innovation ranks second with an implementation in 24.3 % of all enterprises. Product innovation that encompasses new or significantly improved goods or services has been introduced in 23.7 % of the enterprises. Relatively fewer enterprises (21.4 %) have implemented process innovations. It is important to note that enterprises could have introduced innovations in more than one single area.

At the national level, countries with higher shares of innovative enterprises in one type of innovation present also, in general, higher shares for the other types of innovation. This link is particularly true between the share of product- and the share of process innovative enterprises. Regarding the specific types of innovation, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden present the highest shares of product innovative enterprises with respectively 35.8 %, 31.9 %, 31.5 % and 31.5 % of all enterprises. Proportionally, more enterprises implemented process innovation in Portugal (33.5 %), Luxembourg (32.8 %) and Belgium (31.1 %). As regards the introduction of a new organisational method, enterprises in Luxembourg, Austria and Malta have proportionally more innovate than in other countries (respectively 46.8 %, 36.4 % and 34.7 % of the total enterprises) introducing new practices or methods for organising procedures, external relations or for organising work responsibilities and decision making. As to marketing innovation, highest share of enterprises have been observed in Greece (36.8 %), Ireland (35.7 %) and Germany (34.4 %).

Process innovation

Process innovation was introduced in slightly more than 1 in 5 enterprises (21.4 %) across the EU-28. Based on the available data (see Table 2), the most common novelty or improvement among process innovators was related to the methods of manufacturing or producing goods and services. Germany, France, Latvia and Lithuania were the leaders in this specific type of process innovation. More than 7 in 10 process innovative enterprises in those countries reported such innovation.

New or significantly improved supporting activities for processes, such as maintenance systems or operations for purchasing, accounting, or computing were implemented in 58.9 % of the process innovative enterprises at the European level. Less common implementation in the process innovation context is related to new or significantly improved logistics, delivery or distribution methods for inputs, goods or services (only 34.9 % of the EU-28 process innovative enterprises have introduced this specific type of innovation).

Sources of information

Enterprises could be encouraged to innovate by their operational environment in order to meet, for instance, the needs or requirements of their customers or suppliers. However, enterprises could also decide on their own initiative to undertake innovation activities in the framework of strategies development. In this case, information coming from other stakeholders may also arouse interest. Moreover, a concept widely common in discussion on innovation is the 'open innovation'. Open innovation is the use of internal and other companies' ideas to develop businesses opportunities. It is considered as an important component of the foreseen European Innovation System, where all stakeholders need to be involved and create seamless interaction and mash-up for ideas in innovation ecosystems.

In the CIS 2012 context, 22 EU Member States have provided Eurostat with data on sources of information used by product and/or process innovative enterprises. Based on the data collected for these Member States, the percentages are presented in Figure 2 according to the degree of importance given by the enterprises to each type of sources: 'High', 'Medium and low' and 'Not used'. It can be seen that information from suppliers of equipment, materials, components or software is widely used among enterprises in the European Union, 79.6 % of the product and/or process innovative enterprises used information from their suppliers between 2010-2012 with respect to their innovations however only 20 % of these enterprises considered this source as highly important. Figure 3 shows that in Cyprus, Slovenia, Greece and Romania, more than 89 % of the innovative enterprises have used this kind of source. Spain, Germany and Poland show the lowest shares with less than 76 % of their enterprises using this type of information source. Information within the enterprise or enterprise group and information from clients or customers from the private sector take the second and third place with respectively 74.9 % and 71.6 % of the innovative enterprises using such sources of information to develop and implement their new or significantly improved product and process. A large part of the enterprises have also considered these two sources of information highly important (43.9 % and 26.1 % respectively for each type of sources).

Information from universities or other higher research institutions and information from Government, public or private research institutes are found toward the bottom of the ranking. Less than 2 in 5 product and/or process innovative enterprises (37.9 %) reported having used information from universities or other higher research institutions. However, all the countries don't show the same percentages, more than 60 % of the product and/or process innovative enterprises in Austria, Norway and Finland reported the use of information from universities or other higher education institutes. Finally, information from the Government, public or private research institutes have been used by less than 3 in 10 product and/or process innovative enterprises (28.4 %).

Methods for maintaining or increasing the competitiveness for product and process innovations

Data on methods for maintaining or increasing the competitiveness in the enterprises have been provided by 21 EU Member States in the CIS 2012 data collection. Based on the compiled data shown in Figure 4, more than 6 in 10 (61.9 %) product and/or process innovative enterprises attempted taking lead time advantage over the competitors to improve their competiveness, in other words, reducing the delay between the initiation and the implementation of their innovations. Slightly more than one quarter (28.5 %) of the enterprises considered this method as highly important. To maintain or increase their competitiveness, 60.6 % of the product and/or process innovative enterprises have also used the complexity of goods or services. Less than half of them (20.4 %) considered this method highly important. These two methods are closely followed by the secrecy that was used by half of these innovative enterprises (51.2 %). Patents, copyrights and design registration seem to be less used by the product and/or process innovative enterprises and few enterprises considered these three respective methods as highly important. However, it should be noticed that the size of the enterprises and the sector of activity produce significant differences in the results. The larger the size of the innovative enterprises is, for example, the more intensively the enterprises apply for patents.

Innovative and non-innovative enterprises' goals and strategies

Figure 5 presents the goals considered to be highly important by the innovative and the non-innovative enterprises in 20 EU Member States for which the data are available. An increase in the turnover was considered a highly important goal by 60.0 % of the innovative enterprises, followed by a decrease in the costs (55.4 %) and an increase in the profit margins (50.8 %). An increase in the market share has been reported as a highly important goal by 41.0 % of the innovative enterprises. Regarding the non-innovative enterprises, the ranking is quite similar as for the innovative enterprises. However, the shares of non-innovative enterprises reporting an increase in the turnover (48.0 %) and a decrease in the costs (48.2 %) as highly important goals are almost equal with a minor difference of 0.2 point of percentage.

Surveyed enterprises were also invited to report their respective strategies to reach their goals according to a certain level of importance. The results shown in Figure 6 are related to the 19 EU Member States having provided the data on this item. The marketing intensification or improvement of the goods or services is the most important strategy reported by both innovative and non-innovative enterprises (54.8 % and 46.9 respectively). This strategy is followed by the two strategies including the development of new markets within and outside Europe which have been considered highly important by more or less 1 in 4 innovative and non-innovative enterprises. The strategy of building alliances with other enterprises and institutions is the least reported as highly important by both categories (i.e. innovative and non-innovative enterprises).

Data sources and availability

The Community innovation survey (CIS) collects information about product and process innovation, as well as organisational and marketing innovation. The legal basis for collecting these statistics is Regulation 995/2012 implementing Decision 1608/2003/EC concerning the production and development of Community statistics on innovation. Innovations are based on the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service) or process, a new marketing method, or a new organisational method in business practices, workplace organisation or external relations.

Such innovations may be developed by the innovating enterprise itself, together with other enterprises, by another enterprise or by adapting or modifying processes originally developed by other enterprises or institutions. The simple resale of new goods and services purchased from other enterprises is not considered innovation. Innovations should also at least be new to the enterprise concerned. In some cases, innovative enterprises may cooperate with other parties and the cooperation partners may be located in other countries or on other continents. Information collected within the CIS allows for an analysis of cooperation partners for national partners, partners from other European countries, the United States, China or India, and other countries.

In CIS 2012, a particular module focused on the goals of the enterprises and on the strategies they used and the obstacles they faced to reach these goals. The results highlight the differences between innovative and non-innovative enterprises and between the categories. The available indicators show the number of enterprises reporting, for instance, a strong price competition, high costs of access to new markets or a lack of adequate finance as highly important or not relevant obstacles.

Context

Eurostat has been collecting innovation statistics for many years to meet the needs of policymakers and the scientific community. The statistics provided are closely linked to the EU’s policy activities. Indicators on innovation are a tool for decision making and also help to assess initiatives such as the Innovation Union or the European Research Area (ERA) within the context of the Europe 2020 strategy (the EU's growth strategy). Research and innovation is one of five key targets covered by the strategy; the other four are employment, education, social inclusion and poverty reduction, and climate/energy.

Seven ‘flagship initiatives’ provide a framework to support the Europe 2020 priorities — they are in the areas of innovation, the digital economy, employment, youth, industrial policy, poverty, and resource efficiency.

The Innovation Union has three objectives, namely, to:

make Europe into a world-class science performer;
remove obstacles to innovation — such as expensive patenting, market fragmentation, slow standard-setting and skills shortages — that currently prevent ideas getting quickly to market; and
revolutionise the way public and private sectors work together, not least through innovation partnerships between the European institutions, national and regional authorities and business.

In this context, the Innovation Union includes over thirty action points. The partnership on active and healthy ageing provides an illustration of one of these action points, with the target to ‘add an average of two years of healthy life for everyone in Europe’. Another example of an action point targets stimulating innovation in Europe by enhancing access to finance for innovative companies.

The Innovation Union Scoreboard(IUS) is a tool for assessing innovation performance in EU Member States and highlighting the relative strengths and weaknesses of their research and innovation systems; it also helps in monitoring the Innovation Union's implementation. The IUS is based on three types of indicators and eight innovation dimensions. CIS provides six of the 25 indicators available in the Scoreboard.

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Science, technology and Innovation in Europe - Pocketbook, 2012 edition

Main tables

Science and technology, see:

Community innovation survey (t_inn)

Turnover from innovation (tsdec340)

Database

Science and technology, see:

Community innovation survey (inn)

Results of the first community innovation light survey - CIS light (inn_cisl)

Results of the second community innovation survey (CIS2) (inn_cis2)

Results of the third community innovation survey (CIS3) (inn_cis3)

Results of the fourth community innovation survey (CIS4) (inn_cis4)

Results of the community innovation survey 2006 (CIS2006) (inn_cis5)

Results of the community innovation survey 2008 (CIS2008) (inn_cis6)

Results of the community innovation survey 2010 (CIS2010) (inn_cis7)

Results of the community innovation survey 2012 (CIS2012) (inn_cis8)

External links