Innovation activities in industry 2001/2002: Slight decline from a high level

According to the results of the recent Ifo Innovation Survey, about half of the surveyed enterprises implemented product or process innovations in recent years. However, in 2001 a noticeable drop in innovation activities was registered for the first time. Measured by the number of enterprises, the share of innovators fell by more than 4 percentage points to approximately 54%; in 2002 it sank to 53%. Whereas the decline between 2000 and 2001 was due in particular to the lower amount of innovation activities of small and mid-sized enterprises, the slight decline last year is particularly attributable to the innovation behaviour of enterprises with 500 and more employees. For large-scale enterprises (1000 and more employees) the share of innovators decreased by around 6 percentage points and for enterprises with 500 to 999 employees by around 4 percentage points. The exhaustion of available potential is threatened in future by increasing innovation expenditures in connection with an intensification of international competition. Pressure on the return on investment from innovations also comes from the perceptible increase the speed of innovation.