The number of innovative Romanian enterprises dropped in 2014-2016. Less innovation in industry and services

The share of domestic companies that introduced or implemented new or significantly improved products, processes and organisational or marketing methods was 10.2 percent during 2014-2016, 2.6 percent less compared to the 2012-2014 period, the provisional results of National Institute of Statistics (INS) survey on innovation show.

Out of them, 4.8 percent were enterprises that applied only new organisational or marketing methods, while 2.5 percent were enterprises that introduced or implemented only new or significantly improved products and/or processes. Out of the total number of enterprises, 2.9 percent introduced both new products and/or processes and new or significantly improved organisational and/or marketing methods. 

During 2014-2016, big companies with 250 employees and over were more innovative than the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with 10-249 employees. Out of the number of large enterprises, 17.9 percent were innovative, while, out of the small and medium enterprises, only 9.8 percent were innovative. Compared to the previous period, 2012-2014, the weight of the innovative large enterprises dropped by 9.1 pp, from 27 percent in 2012-2014 to 17.9 percent in 2014-2016.

The same downward trend was registered for the innovative SMEs, which dropped from a 12.2 percent weight in the 2012-2014 period to a mere 9.8 percent weight, a decrease of 2.4 pp. 

INS shows that compared to 2012-2014, in both economic sectors (industry and services) there was a decrease in the innovative potential of enterprises. In the industry sector there was a decrease of 2.3 pp, from 12.6 percent in the 2012-2014 period to 10.3 percent in the period under review. In the services sector there was a decrease of 3.1 pp, from 13.1 percent in 2012-2014 to 10 percent in 2014-2016. 

However, there was better co-operation between the enterprises; the weight of the enterprises that co-operated increased by 2.5 pp, from 15.4 percent in 2012-2014 to 17.9 percent in 2014-2016. Co-operation among the innovative enterprises in the industry sector was more active, with a weight of 21.9 percent, while in the services sector the share of companies that co-operated during 2014-2016 was 13.8 percent.