The European Innovation Scoreboard 2009 which provides a comparative assessment of the innovation performance across 29 indicators. Of the EU27 member states, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden and the UK are the innovation leaders, with innovation performance well above that the EU27 average. Of these leaders, however, Finland and Germany are improving their innovation performance, whereas Denmark and UK are stagnating. Actually, Denmark’s rate of improvement is not only below that of the EU27 but virtually zero – as in Sweden and the United Kingdom. This is primarily due to the fact that ‘innovators and economic effects’ has worsened, subsequently due to decreases in innovative SMEs collaborating with others (-8.0%), SMEs introducing product or process innovations (-5.7%), new-to-market sales (-7.7%) and new-to-firm sales (-8.5%). Surprisingly enough, since Denmarks strength is recognised as continuous, incremental technical improvement through communication with suppliers and customers, according to the Global Innovation Index 2010 (Insead).
Research by the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation (www.fist.dk) shows tripled chances of successful innovation when enterprises collaborate with their customers, suppliers, consultants, compared to projects conducted without collaboration.
See also Global Innovation Index.
Source: Frode Lundsten | Editor for Denmark | Innovation Management | September 13, 2010