Archive:Innovation statistics

Data from March 2017. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database. Planned article update: January 2019.

Figure 1: Share of innovative enterprises by type and size of enterprises, EU-28, 2012–14 (¹)
(% of all enterprises) - Source: Eurostat (inn_cis9_type)

Figure 2: Share of product innovative enterprises by type of novelty and country, 2012–14 (¹)
(% of all enterprises) - Source: Eurostat (inn_cis9_prod)

Figure 3: Share of innovative and non-innovative enterprises in the total of their largest market, 2012–14 (¹)
(% of all enterprises) - Source: Eurostat (inn_cis9_gen)

Figure 4: Reasons for which non-innovative enterprises did not consider innovating by degree of importance, 2012–14 (¹)
(% of all non-innovative enterprises) - Source: Eurostat (inn_cis9_noin)

Figure 5: Share of innovative enterprises that introduced innovation with environmental benefits obtained within the enterprise or during the consumption by the end user, 2012–14 (¹)
(% of all innovative enterprises) - Source: Eurostat (inn_cis9_env)

This article discusses the innovativeness of enterprises in the European Union (EU). It provides information on the state of innovation and focuses on some features and key aspects of the development of innovations implemented by 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 European policies. The Community Innovation Survey (CIS) provides statistics analysed by types of innovators, economic activities and size classes. The survey is currently carried out every two years across the EU, some EFTA countries and some EU candidate countries.

Some statistical findings

Innovation in SME's and in large enterprises

Almost half of all enterprises in the EU-28 reported innovation activity (49.1 %) during the period 2012-14. Compared with the period 2010-12, the share of innovative enterprises remained relatively stable (+0.2 percentage points). Figure 1 provides an analysis of the types of innovation implemented between 2012 and 2014, namely product, process, organisation and marketing innovation for the total of enterprises, for Small and medium enterprises only and for large enterprises only. For the EU-28 as a whole and regardless the size of the enterprises, more than one quarter (27.3 %) of enterprises reported organisational innovation. Product innovation (innovation that encompasses new or significantly improved goods or services) ranked second, being implemented in 23.9 % of all enterprises. Marketing innovation was introduced in 22.8 % of enterprises. Relatively less enterprises (21.6 %) implemented process innovations. It is important to note that individual enterprises may have introduced more than one type of innovation.

Among the EU Member States, the highest shares of innovative enterprises during the period 2012–14 were observed in Germany (67.0 % of all enterprises), Luxembourg (65.1 %) and Belgium (64.2 %). The lowest shares were recorded in Poland (21.0 %) and Romania (12.8 %).

Some differences are observed when the size of enterprises is considered. Given that the vast majority of EU enterprises consist of small and medium enterprises ( SMEs), this group follow exactly the same trend as the total. In contrast, large enterprises seem to not respond to the same scheme. First, large enterprises innovate comparatively much more than the SMEs and this is noticed for the four types of innovation. Almost 8 in 10 large enterprises have been innovative during he period 2012-14. Slightly more than the half of the large enterprises have introduced an organisation or a product innovation. Process innovation ranked in the third position and has been introduced in almost half of the large enterprises (49 %) while marketing innovation is only implemented in 4 of 10 large enterprises. Marketing innovation is the less introduced type of innovation in large enterprises.

Product innovation and novelty

In order to be product innovative, an enterprise should have introduced a new or a significantly improved product. This good or service innovation could be new to the market or only new to the enterprise. Amongst the EU Member States, Ireland, Finland and Germany show between 2012 and 2014 the highest share of product innovative enterprises, respectively (35.7 %, 34.5 % and 34.4 %). However, it appears that the countries that show the highest share of enterprises that have introduced a innovative good or service new to the market are Ireland, Belgium and Australia. Romania and Estonia have the lowest share of enterprises with product innovation new to the market. These shares can vary substantially from a country to another. . For the EU-28 as a whole, almost half of the enterprises that introduced product innovation (which represent almost one quarter of the enterprises) have introduced a product innovation new to the market (12.5 %).

Largest market and innovation

In the 2014 data collection exercise, 23 countries provided Eurostat with data on the largest market of innovative and non-innovative enterprises. Based on these results, Figure 3 shows that the share of innovative enterprises is lower when the local or the regional market is the largest market of the enterprises (40.6 %). National and European market seem to have the same performance regarding the innovativeness of the enterprise: 55 % of the enterprises for which the national or the European market is the largest market in terms of turnover have conducted innovation activities. Enterprises that sell goods or services mainly outside Europe are proportionately more encline to undertake innovation: 3 in 4 enterprises have reported innovation during the period 2012-2014.

Non-innovators

Data on non-innovators have been collected during the CIS 2014 round in order to understand better why the enterprises did not innovate. The main idea was to know if the enterprises do not innovate on voluntary basis or if the enterprises wanted to conduct innovation but too large barriers prevented the innovation. 19 EU Member States and 2 EFTA countries have provided data specifically on non-innovators' behaviour .

When it was asked to the enterprises why they did no innovate, 16.5 % reported that they considered innovating but barriers to innovation were too large, the rest of the enterprises (83.1 %) reported that they simply did not compel reasons to innovate. Focusing on this second category, the first reason given by the non-innovative enterprises is that the demand for innovations in their market is low (62.0 %), more than one third consider this reason as highly important. The second reason evoked is the very little competition in the market, this would not give incentives to the enterprises to innovate. This reason has been reported by more than half of the enterprises (55.4 %). Some enterprises have already innovated in the past and do not feel the need to innovate again, for1 in 10 enterprises, this is a highly important reason. Finally, 48.1 % of the enterprises evoked the lack of good ideas but only 8.1 % reported that the lack of good ideas as highly important.

Innovation with environmental benefits

Figure 5 presents the environmental benefits of the innovations introduced by the enterprises. In total, 24 countries have collected data on eco-innovation in their CIS 2014 questionnaire. Half of innovative enterprises (55.3 %) reported innovation with environmental benefits obtained within the enterprise or obtained during the consumption or use of a good or service by the end user. Actually, most of the enterprises obtained the environmental benefits within the enterprise (50.6 %). The most common benefit obtained within the enterprise was the reduction of energy use or CO2 'footprint' that was reported by one third of the innovative enterprises (33.9 %). Between one quarter and one fifth of the innovative enterprises reduced material or water use per unit of output, reduced air, water, noise or soil pollution, recycled waste, water, or materials for own use or sale or, replaced a share of materials with less polluting or hazardous substitutes . Much less of innovative enterprises replaced a share of fossil energy with renewable energy sources (13.5 %).

The results shown in Figure 5 cover also the innovative enterprises that report environmental benefits obtained during the consumption or use of a good or service by the end user: 31.8 % of those reported such benefits. The most frequently reported in that category is also the reduction of energy use or CO2 'footprint' (25.7 %). Follow with less than one fifth of the innovative enterprises the reduction of air, water, noise or soil pollution, an extended product life through more durable products or the recycling of product after use by the end user.

Data sources and availability

The community innovation survey 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 community innovation survey allows for an analysis of cooperation with national partners, partners from elsewhere in Europe, partners from the United States, China or India, with partners from other countries.

In the 2014 data collection exercise, a particular module focused on innovations with environmental benefits. The results highlight the types of environmental benefits obtained through the innovation, which type of innovation generate this environmental benefits (product, process, organisation or marketing innovation). This set of questions includes also indicators on factors driving the enterprises decisions to introduce innovations with environmental benefits by degree of importance. The available indicators show the number of enterprises reporting, for instance, high costs of energy, water or materials, the wish to improve the enterprise's reputation or the environmental regulations as highly important or not relevant drivers.The last question of this module asks if the enterprises have procedures in place to regularly identify and reduce the environmental impacts.

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 European innovation scoreboard 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 European innovation scoreboard is based on three types of indicators and eight innovation dimensions. The community innovation survey provides six of the 25 indicators available in the scoreboard.

Further Eurostat information

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)

Results of the community innovation survey 2014 (CIS2014) (inn_cis9)

External links