Cyprus industry innovating more than services

Industrial companies are innovating more than service companies, according to the Innovation Survey carried out by the Statistical Service among enterprises with 10 or more employees.
In total, it found that 56.1% of enterprises had some form of innovation activity during the period 2006-2008 but among industrial enterprises this proportion was higher, at 63.2% compared with 49.4% in the services sector.
Among all enterprises 8.1% were active in (product and/or process) technological innovation only, 13.2% in non technological (organisational and/or marketing) innovation only and 34.9% were both technologically and non technologically active.
The larger the enterprise the more likely it was to have had some form of innovation activity during the period: 52.6% for enterprises employing 10-49 persons, 71.4% for enterprises with 50-249 employees and 80.7% for enterprises with 250 and more employees.
The proportion of innovative enterprises in Cyprus (56.1%) fairs quite favourably with the EU average, which stands at 51.6%.
The highest proportions of enterprises with innovation activity were recorded in Germany (79.9%), Luxembourg (64.7%) and Belgium (58.1%) and the lowest in Latvia (24.3%), Poland (27.9%) and Hungary (28.9%).

Quality counts
Quality was found to be more important than cost in driving innovation.
Among the enterprises with technological innovation activity, 77.3% reported that innovation was highly important for improving the quality of their goods and services; 66.4% for replacing outdated products or processes; 64.4% for improving their production flexibility; 63.4% for increasing the range of their goods or services; 62.0% for increasing their market share; 61.4% for increasing their capacity for producing goods or services; 45.1% for entering new markets; 40.5% for improving health and safety.
Only 37.0% said it was for reducing labour costs per unit output.