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Technological Innovation. Expenditures. By innovative activity

Expenditure on innovative activities in the reference year. By type of expenditure Catalonia
2020 2019 2018
Companies with expenditure on innovative activities in Catalonia (1) 4,797 6,723 5,647
Expenditure on innovative activities in Catalonia (thousands of euros) (1) 4,512,493.9 5,246,846.1 4,958,187.3
Percentage distribution by type of activity for innovation
Internal R&D 46.01 38.91 41.07
R&D acquisition (external R&D) 15.70 17.79 18.99
Other innovative activities (excluding internal and external R&D) 38.28 43.30 41.11
Innovation intensity (%) (2)
Total companies 1.53 1.43 1.44
Companies with expenditure on innovative activities in the reference year 3.21 2.81 2.92
Companies with expenditure on internal R&D activities in the reference year 3.55 3.38 3.37
Source: Idescat, based on data from the INE's Survey of innovation in companies.
Notes:
Innovation intensity: Expenditure in innovative activities / turnover (*100).
(1) Regardless of where the head office is located.
(2) Companies with head offices in Catalonia.

Last update: April 29, 2022.

Methodological note

Definition of concepts

Indicators of innovation
Percentage of turnover that companies spend on technological innovation.
Technological innovation
Set of scientific, technological, organisational, financial or commercial activities carried out by a company in order to modify or improve production processes, and introduce new products to the market.

Methodological aspects

Data on the process of innovation of the companies in Catalonia are obtained from the survey conducted by theINE. This survey addresses companies selected by a stratified random sampling method according to the methodology set out in the Oslo Manual. This manual contains all the methodological guidelines of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)to measure innovation in companies.

With the revised Oslo Manual (2005), the definition of innovative company is extended. In addition to the companies with technological innovations, that include innovations in products and process, those companies with non-technological innovations, that include organizational and sales innovations, are also considered.

A technological innovation, as defined in this survey, is a new product (good or service) or a slightly improved one introduced to the market, or a new process or a slightly improved one introduced to enterprise.

The statistics provide the number of companies with technological innovation activities accordingto their spending in the different innovative activities (internal and external R&D,the purchase of machinery and equipment, other external knowledge for innovation, training, the introduction of innovations to the market, design and preparation fordistribution/production). They also provide data on the number of companies according to their type of technological innovation (product, process, and product and process), as well as the expense in these innovation activities.

EIN companies are companies with technological innovation in the specific period plus those that have technological innovations in progress or unsuccessful innovations in the same period.

An EIN company is understood to have applied for a patent if it has done so at any of the following offices: Spanish Patents and Brands Office, European Patent Office, United States Patents and Trademark Office, and also the patents in the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

It also provides information on the objectives at which this innovation has been aimed: objectives aimed at products, processes, employment, and other objectives.

non-technological innovation, such as is defined in this survey, consists of new organisational methods in the internal functioning of the company, of the workplace or in external relations, in addition to the implementation of new commercial strategies or concepts.

With respect to non-technological innovation, statistics provide information on the number of companies according to the types of non-technological innovation as well as the degree of importance of the objectives pursued by these organisational and marketing innovations.

Unavailable information is represented using the symbol ":". When the value is lower than that of the minimum unit to be able to estimate the statistical operation or if it effects statistical confidentiality, the symbol used is "..".