Skip to main content

Technological Innovation. Companies. By type of innovation

Innovative companies in the reference year or in one of the two previous ones. By type of innovation Catalonia
2022 2020 2019 2018
Innovative companies (product and/or business processes) 8,116 7,473 7,492 6,767
% of total companies 26.5 25.1 24.2 22.3
By type of innovation
Product (new or significantly improved goods and/or services) 4,058 4,248 3,695 3,638
Business process 7,228 6,596 6,695 5,929
Product and business process 3,170 3,372 2,898 2,800
Companies with completed, ongoing or abandoned innovations 2,947 4,131 8,000 7,569
% of total companies 9.6 13.9 25.8 24.9
Source: Idescat, based on data from the INE's Survey of innovation in companies.
Note: Companies with head offices in Catalonia.

Last update: May 31, 2024.

Methodological note

Definition of concepts

Company
The smallest combination of legal units constituting an organisational unit for the production of goods or services, one having certain autonomy in terms of decision-making, principally for allocating the resources it has at its disposal.
Innovative company
Economic unit that has made a 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

A product innovation is a new or improved good or service that differs significantly from the company's previous goods or services and has been introduced to the market. The term product refers to both physical and digital goods and services.

A business process innovation is a new or improved business process for one or more business functions that differs significantly from the previous business process of the company and has been implemented in the company.

Information on product or business process innovation refers to those innovations made in the period of the reference year of the Survey or any of the previous two years.

Expenditure on innovative activities is measured for companies with headquarters in Catalonia, regardless of where they have carried out the innovation and for companies with innovative activities carried out in Catalonia, regardless of where their headquarters are located. The amount refers to the expenditure made in the reference year of the Survey.

The innovation intensity measures the relationship between expenditure on innovative activities and business production. It is calculated as the percentage of expenditure on innovation with respect to the total turnover in the reference year.

The Innovation in Companies Survey follows the recommendations of the Oslo Manual, which contains guidelines proposed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In 2018, a methodological change is introduced for the application of the new revision of the Oslo Manual 2018, which, among other things, again modifies the definition of innovative company and causes a break in the time series with respect to the results of previous years.

The population includes agricultural, industrial, construction and service companies with at least 10 salaried employees.

You can get more information about these statistics in the methodology.