First place for Greece for the proportion of innovative companies among EU countries

First place for Greece for the proportion of innovative companies among EU countries

Greek businesses take the 1st place in innovation according to Eurostat, as 73% of businesses in Greece reported some form of innovation activity in the period 2018 - 2020.

Business innovation relates to the wide range of activities that enterprises undertake to implement innovation processes, develop new goods or services, and bring them to market. The Community Innovation Survey (CIS) reports about two kinds of innovation: product innovation and business process innovation. The latest CIS results show that more than half (53%) of all enterprises in the EU reported some form of innovation activity in 2018-2020.

The highest proportion of innovative enterprises was reported in Greece (73% of all enterprises), followed by Belgium (71%), Germany and Finland (both 69%) and Cyprus (66%). In contrast, the lowest innovation activity was observed in Romania (11%), Latvia (32%), Hungary and Spain (both 33%) and Poland (35%).

Medium-sized and large companies are more innovative 

The distribution of enterprises by size in terms of product and/or business process innovation in 2018-2020 showed that large enterprises (250+ employees) were more likely to have introduced innovations (74%) than medium-size (50-249 employees) companies (60%).

Data shows that almost seven out of ten large companies introduced a business process innovation (69%), and more than half introduced a product innovation (55%). In the vast majority of companies designated as small (10-49 employees), only almost 4 out of 10 were process innovators, and around one quarter were product innovators.

This indicates the urgency for small and medium enterprises to adopt a more innovative culture, not only for growing their business, but mainly for staying relevant.