Survey Results: Innovation in Cypriot Enterprises

2008-2010

On the basis of the results of the Innovation Survey carried out by the Statistical Service among enterprises with 10 or more employees, 46,2% of enterprises had some form of innovation activity during the period 2008-2010. Among industrial enterprises, this proportion stood at 47,9% compared to 44,7% in the services sector. Of the total enterprises, 8,2% were active in (product and/or process) technological innovation only, 10,2% in non technological (organisational and/or marketing) innovation only and 27,9% were both technologically and non technologically innovation active. With regard to the size-class breakdown, the larger the enterprise the more likely it was to have had some form of innovation activity during the enterprises with 50-249 employees and 83,7% for enterprises with 250 and more employees. The proportion of innovative enterprises in Cyprus (46,2%) is slightly lower than the respective proportion for the EU Member States, which stands at 52,9% on average. The highest proportions of enterprises with innovation activity were recorded in Germany (79,3%), Luxembourg (68,1%) and Belgium (60,9%) and the lowest in Bulgaria (27,1%), Poland (28,1%) and Latvia (29,9%). According to 84,1% of all enterprises with technological innovation activity in Cyprus, innovation was regarded as highly important for improving the quality of their goods and services, 76,1% for replacing outdated products or processes, 75,3% for improving their production flexibility, 72,4% for increasing their capacity for producing goods or services, 68,8% for increasing the range of their goods or services, 64,2% for entering new markets or increasing their market share, 50,4% for improving health and safety of their employees, 46,8% for reducing labour costs per unit output, 36,8% for reducing environmental impacts of their enterprises and 36,3% for reducing material and energy costs per unit output. Among enterprises with no innovation activity, the main factors declared as having a high degree of impact on hampering innovation or influencing a decision not to innovate were the high costs (48,0%), the lack of funds within the enterprise (47,3%), the absence of demand for innovations (43,3%), the existence of prior innovations (43,2%), the lack of finance from sources outside the enterprise (41,3%), the uncertain demand for innovative goods or services (39,2%) and others.

STATISTICAL SUBTHEME: INNOVATION