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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

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Updated 12.4.2018