Share of innovative enterprises increases by 4.4 pct in 2016-2018 period
The share of innovative enterprises among total enterprises has increased, in the 2016-2018 period, over the 2014-2016 period, by 4.4 percentage points, according to data of the National Institute for Statistics published on Tuesday. A quarter of the total number of employees have had activity in an innovative enterprise.
The largest share of innovative enterprises among total enterprises was recorded in the Bucharest-Ilfov region - 25.5 pct and the North-West region - 21.1 pct, while the lowest shares were in the South-West Oltenia region - 4.4 pct and the West region - 4 pct.
The results of statistical research regarding innovation in enterprises in the business environment, in the 2016-2018 period, have emphasized the fact that of a total of 28,776 enterprises, a number of 4,198 enterprises conducted innovative activities, of which 4,124 are successful innovators, implementing at least one product innovation or business process.
"One of the main indicators that characterizes the innovative activity is the ratio between innovative enterprises and the total number of enterprises in the statistical population. For the 2016-2018 period, the calculation of this indicator shows us that the share of innovative enterprises was of 14.6 pct, and that of non-innovative enterprises was 85.4 pct. Of the total number of enterprises, 6.4 pct have introduced or implemented only new or significantly improved products, while 4.5 pct of them implemented only new or significantly improved business processes. The share of enterprises that had both product innovation as well as business process innovation was of 3.5 pct," the INS release shows.
By economic activities, the enterprises in the industry sector were more innovative, having a share of 16.3 pct of the total number of enterprises in the industry, and those in the services sector represented 12.9 pct of the total number of enterprises.
By economic activities of the industry sector, the manufacturing industry holds a share of 94.7 pct, and in the activities of the services sector, the highest share of innovative enterprises, in total enterprises of this sector, being held by information and communication 39.8 pct.
In 2018, the turnover of innovative enterprises was of 284.229 billion RON current prices, representing 29.4 pct of the total turnover of enterprises. The total value of the expenses allotted to innovative activity was of 4.306 billion RON current prices. Of the total expenses for the innovative activity of enterprises, 75.6 pct were allotted to internal research-development activity, 23.3 pct representing other costs in innovation (excluding research-development) and only 1.1 pct of expenses were allotted to externalized research-development (including enterprises in the own enterprises group).
In the 2016-2018 period, 12.7 pct of innovative enterprises used at least one type of public financing, and of them, 9 pct used public funds for research-development, innovation activities.