Increase in Innovation Activities in the Manufacturing and Mining Industries

The innovation activities in the German manufacturing and mining industries have further increased. In 1997, the share of innovative companies among all businesses in this sector has reached a level of 66 per cent, which makes an increase of 6 per cent as compared to the previous year. Despite a shrinking number of companies in the manufacturing and mining industries, the absolute number of innovative companies has increased and exceeded the 40,000 mark for the first time since 1992. These are the findings of the latest innovation survey carried out by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim. For this representative survey, ZEW interviewed approximately 5,745 enterprises about their innovation activities in 1998 and projected the results for Germany. According to ZEW calculations, innovation expenditures have likewise increased considerably to 108 billion DM, reaching a 5.2 per cent share of the total turnover amount. The decline in innovation activity at the beginning of the 90s, partly as a result of cyclical developments, has thus been overcome.

With 5.7 million employers, the labour market situation has largely stabilised for innovative companies. As a general tendency, however, employment is continuously shrinking in the entire manufacturing and mining industry. Despite this generally positive assessment, the German manufacturing and mining industries are likely to face problems, in particular, companies in the new federal states, companies from industries which are less oriented towards R&D, and medium-sized companies with 200 to 500 employees. Thus, the new federal states continue to experience an unstable development. Innovation expenditure of less R&D-oriented companies is stagnating and the innovation activity of medium-sized companies is even on the decline. 

Contact

Dr. Norbert Janz, E-mail: janz@zew.de