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7. Enterprises’ strategies and innovation activity

In the survey, one background question inquired how important certain strategies were for the enterprise's activity in 2014 to 2016.

For example, 89 per cent of enterprises replied that improving existing goods and services had high or medium importance as a strategy. Of those having assessed this, 46 per cent introduced product innovations to the markets in 2014 to 2016, and 43 per cent reported process innovations. In all, 68 per cent reported innovation activity.

The share of enterprises with innovation activity among those responding that improvement of products was a highly important strategy, instead of high or medium, was even higher. The share of enterprises having brought product innovations to the market was 53 per cent and three out of four enterprises reported innovation activity.

For enterprises that said introducing new products had been the strategy, reporting innovations was even more common than above. If introducing new products had high importance as a strategy, the share of those having reported product innovations was 72 per cent, and 86 per cent had had innovation activity.

In practice, enterprises that focused on the said targets in their strategy also reported innovations more often. Enterprises that recorded the said strategies as non-relevant did not have much innovation activity.

Table 2. Enterprises’ strategies by importance of strategy 2014–2016, share of enterprises

  Importance of
strategy high
or medium
Importance of
strategy high
Importance of
strategy medium
Importance of
strategy low
% % % %
Improving existing goods and services 89.4 50.8 38.6 6.1
Offering entirely new goods and services 69.0 28.5 40.5 22.3
Reaching new customer groups 77.6 39.9 37.7 15.0
Customer-specific solutions 81.7 43.5 38.2 12.3
Low prices 54.7 11.3 43.4 34.6

Table 3. Prevalence of innovation activity among those that assessed the said strategies as important in 2014 to 2016, share of enterprises having assessed the strategies as having high or medium importance

  Product innovations Process innovations Innovation activity related to products and processes Innovation activity
%
of enterprises that assessed strategy as having high or medium importance
%
of enterprises that assessed strategy as having high or medium importance
%
of enterprises that assessed strategy as having high or medium importance
%
of enterprises that assessed strategy as having high or medium importance
Improving existing goods and services 46,2 43,4 61,5 68,2
Offering entirely new goods and services 55,2 47,6 68,7 75,1
Reaching new customer groups 48,3 44,6 63,3 69,9
Customer-specific solutions 45,4 43,3 60,8 68,0
Low prices 40,1 39,5 56,1 63,9

Source: Innovation 2016, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Mervi Niemi 029 551 3263, Heidi Pirkola 029 551 3246, tiede.teknologia@stat.fi

Director in charge: Sami Saarikivi


Updated 12.4.2018

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Innovation [e-publication].
ISSN=1797-4399. 2016, 7. Enterprises’ strategies and innovation activity . Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/inn/2016/inn_2016_2018-04-12_kat_007_en.html