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9. Cooperation is characteristic of enterprises engaged in innovation activity

Of all enterprises included in the Innovation Survey, every third reported cooperation with other enterprises or organisations during the three-year survey period 2016 to 2018. Over one-half of enterprises with innovation activity, 55 per cent, reported cooperation. A significantly smaller share of enterprises with no innovation activity reported cooperation, eight per cent. Then cooperation was directed to other business than innovation activity.

Forty-one per cent of enterprises with innovation activity and every fourth enterprise calculated from all enterprises had collaboration related to research and development. Nearly every fourth enterprise with innovation activity and 15 per cent of all enterprises had cooperation connected to other innovation activity. Other cooperation than that connected to innovation activity was reported by every fourth of all enterprises and 35 per cent of those with innovation activity.

Collaboration related to research and development was more common in manufacturing than in service industries, but other cooperation connected to innovation activity, similarly as cooperation related to other business activities was on the total level almost as common in manufacturing and service industries.

Figure 11. Cooperation connected to innovation activity and other business activities in 2016 to 2018

Nearly one-half of enterprises with innovation activity, being 62 per cent of all enterprises in the data, had cooperation connected to innovation activity with other enterprises or organisations in 2016 to 2018. Cooperation was most commonly reported with consultants and research laboratories, equipment and material suppliers, enterprise customers and universities. For enterprises in groups, cooperation within the group is naturally important.

Nearly half of those having cooperated reported collaboration with enterprise customers. Instead, the role of public sector customers or household customers as cooperation partners is less common.

Around one-half of those having cooperated reported innovation collaboration with universities and universities of applied sciences. Cooperation related to innovations was slightly more common with universities than with universities of applied sciences. Forty-one per cent of cooperating enterprises reported cooperation with universities, 33 per cent with universities of applied sciences.

Cooperation in innovation activity is more general for manufacturing enterprises than for service industries. Over one-half of enterprises with innovation activity in manufacturing reported innovation cooperation. In services the respective share was 43 per cent. Of different cooperation partners, consultants and research laboratories and equipment and material suppliers, as well as the university sector and public research institutes are named by manufacturing enterprises significantly more often as cooperation partners in development work than by service enterprises.

Figure 12. Prevalence of cooperation in innovation activity with different cooperation partners in total industry and services in 2016 to 2018, share of enterprises with innovation activity

Nearly all of those having cooperated in innovation activity had collaborated with partners located in Finland. More than every fourth, 28 per cent, had cooperated in innovation activity with domestic partners, examined from all enterprises in the survey. Forty-three per cent of those having cooperated reported innovation cooperation with partners in EU or EFTA countries ¹⁾ , and 13 per cent of all enterprises. Every fourth of those having cooperated had cooperation partners outside EU or EFTA countries, that is, seven per cent of all enterprises.

Figure 13. Prevalence of innovation cooperation with partners located in different areas in 2016 to 2018

The most common cooperation partners for manufacturing in the EU-EFTA area were equipment and material suppliers, consultants and commercial research laboratories and enterprise customers. Service industries most often mentioned equipment and material suppliers as their partners. Enterprises within the same enterprise group are naturally among the most important partners in the EU-EFTA area and elsewhere in the world. Outside the EU and EFTA countries, partners outside the enterprise group were also most often equipment and material suppliers as well as enterprise customers.

For example, 12 per cent of enterprises with innovation activity in manufacturing had cooperated in 2016 to 2018 with consultants, commercial laboratories or private research institutions in the EU-EFTA area. The corresponding share was four per cent in service industries. In manufacturing industries, cooperation with consultants and laboratories, as well as cooperation with enterprise customers in the EU-EFTA area was reported most commonly by the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products and chemical and chemical products (C19-20) and the manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products (C26).

The share of those having cooperated with equipment, material, component or software suppliers in the EU-EFTA area was 16 per cent of manufacturing enterprises with innovation activity, while the share was eight per cent in service industries. For example, 28 per cent of enterprises with innovation activity in the manufacture of paper and paper products (C17) had had cooperation with equipment and material suppliers in the EU-EFTA area in 2016 to 2018. Every tenth enterprise with innovation activity in the paper industry had development cooperation with partners outside EU-EFTA countries.

manufacturing enterprises having cooperated in Finland with the university sector operated most often in the manufacture of basic metals (C24) and in the manufacture of computers, electronic and optical products (C26). Every tenth enterprise in these fields took part in innovation cooperation with universities in EU-EFTA countries. Enterprises also had university cooperation located wider than this.

In service industries university cooperation was most common in scientific research and development (M72). Nearly one half of enterprises with innovation activity had cooperated with universities or universities of applied sciences. Eight per cent of research and development enterprises had had innovation cooperation with universities located in EU-EFTA countries, and seven per cent with universities in other countries.

By the number of enterprises, the biggest industry with innovation cooperation was computer programming (J62) in 2016 to 2018. Computer programming enterprises formed the biggest group of enterprises in an individual industry that had innovation cooperation in the EU-EFTA area. Computer programming enterprises also cooperate with partners located outside the EU-EFTA area with a significant number of enterprises.

Table 1. Prevalence of cooperation in innovation activity in different areas in 2016 to 2018, share of enterprises with innovation activity

	Finland %	Other EU or EFTA %	All other countries %
Consultants, commercial labs, or private research institutes	27.9	7.9	2.4
Suppliers of equipment, materials, components or software	24.4	11.7	5.6
Enterprise customers	20.3	7.7	4.1
Competitors	6.2	2.8	1.2
Other enterprises (outside the group and not mentioned elsewhere)	14.1	4.4	2.4
Enterprises within the enterprise group	13.1	9.1	4.8
Universities and universities of applied sciences	23.4	4.0	1.6
Government or public research institutes	13.1	2.9	0.9
Clients or customers from the public sector	5.9	1.2	0.6
Non-profit organisations	5.0	1.2	0.5
Clients or customers from the private sector	5.3	0.7	0.4

Further information about cooperation by industry and size category

Cooperation by enterprises and location and partners of cooperation in innovation activity by enterprise size category
Cooperation by enterprises and location and partners of cooperation in innovation activity by industry
1) European Union (EU) Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom EFTA countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerlan

Source: Innovation 2018, Statistics Finland

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

Director in charge: Mari Ylä-Jarkko

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Updated 23.4.2020