Food and metals firms leaders in innovation
Productive small and mid-sized enterprises are nearly three times as likely to introduce some form of innovation than commercial firms, a study has found.
According to a research paper by the Applied Marketing Department of the Thessaly Technological School (TEI), 44.6 percent of all enterprises included research and development (R&D) into their growth model in the 2012-2014 period. The largest segment of them were productive concerns (48.3 percent), while commercial firms lagged far behind (17.2 percent). Food manufacturing and metal construction firms appear as leaders in innovation.
The analysis also showed that the higher a business’s turnover, the greater the emphasis on the introduction of innovation.
Only 12.3 percent of the businesses that participated in the study received some form of financial support. The enterprises that did receive support from European Union programs (10-40 percent subsidies) belonged to the sectors of foodstuffs and metal construction, with turnovers of up to 10 million euros.
