FAZIT Company Survey – Half of the Companies in Baden-Württemberg Have Successfully Introduced Innovations

From 2004 to 2006, a total of 53 per cent of the companies in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg have successfully introduced innovations. 42 per cent of these companies were able to launch new or significantly improved products or services (product innovation). In this period, a total of 43 per cent established new or considerably improved internal processes (process innovations) and about 32 per cent of the companies in Baden-Württemberg state that they introduced both product and process innovations.

These are the findings of the fourth representative FAZIT Company Survey conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research, Mannheim, in November and December 2006. More than 800 companies from Baden-Württemberg participated in this survey.

In the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, the banking and insurance sector is particularly innovative. The FAZIT Company Survey suggests that approximately 85 per cent of the companies in this sector introduced product and/or process innovations. 79 per cent of these companies launched product innovations whereas 59 per cent established process innovations. The manufacturing sector in Baden-Württemberg also contains a very large number of innovative enterprises (57 per cent). 55 per cent of the companies in the IT and media sector launched product or process innovations and 50 per cent of the technic service providers. The share of innovative transport providers, however, lies below average at only 42 per cent.

As expected, the bigger a company is (measured by the number of its employees) the more willingly does it introduce product or process innovations. Just slightly more than a third of the very small companies with five or less employees confirm to have marketed a new or significantly improved product or service or else established considerably improved internal processes. Contrary to this, the percentage of innovative larger companies with at least 250 employees lies at 86 per cent (product innovations) and 82 per cent (process innovations) respectively.

A total of 32 per cent of the companies in Baden-Württemberg have introduced both new products and new processes. In that context, the banking and insurance sector is the most innovative branch (54 per cent). The IT and media sector (33 per cent), the manufacturing sector (35 per cent) and the technic service providers (35 per cent) remain on an average level. The proportion of innovative transport providers though is below average (18 per cent).

FAZIT Company Survey

The “Research Project for Current and Future IT and Media Technologies and Their Use in Baden-Württemberg” (FAZIT) is a non-profit research project fostered/promoted by the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. More than 1.000 firms of Baden-Württemberg from the IT and Media sector (software, data-processing service providers, IT and media hardware, telecommunications, audio-visual media, printing and publishing, advertising and market communication, content service providers), as well as from other sectors that utilize IT and media technologies (chemical industry, mechanical engineering, medical, measuring, controlling technology, car manufacture, transportation, banking and insurance sector, research and development, and technical service providers) participated in the current survey.

Contact

Jörg Ohnemus, Phone: +49/621/1235-354, E-mail: ohnemus@zew.de