IP Outreach Research > IP Creation

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Main Findings

In the period 2004 to 2006 inclusive, more than 47% of Irish enterprises indicated that they were active innovators. The innovation activity rate was at 57% in the industrial sector, and at 41% in services. Overall, 33% of enterprises engaged in product innovations, while 30% engaged in process innovations; 2% had ongoing or abandoned innovation activities. Larger firms were more likely to be innovation active.

12.6% of turnover of all active and non-active innovators in 2006 was a result of product innovations in the 2004 to 2006 period. The percentage of total turnover attributed to product innovation activities increased with firm size. Spending on innovation activities was for machinery, equipment and software (41%), intramural R&D (38%), acquisition of external knowledge (15%), and extramural R&D (6%).

27% of innovation-active enterprises reported engaging in some cooperation activity when developing their innovations. Large firms were more likely to be involved in innovation partnerships. The most commonly cited innovation partners were: “equipment suppliers” (with 17% reporting an innovation cooperation with them), “within own group” (14%), and “clients/customers” (14%).

The most important barriers to innovation activities were: “lack of funds” (cited as hampering innovation by 18.6% of innovative enterprises, and by 12.5% of non-innovative enterprises), “innovation costs too high” (16.3% versus 11.3%), “market dominated by established enterprises” (14.9% versus 10.3%), “lack of external finance” (12.2% versus 7%), and “lack of qualified personnel” (10.1% versus 6.2%).

[Date Added: Nov 20, 2008 ]