The 3rd Community Innovation Survey reveals significant differences among countries in terms of innovation performance. The paper of Abramosky, Jaumandreu et al. focuses on 4 countries (France, Spain, Germany and UK) and analyses country-specific and sector-specific differences to explain this innovation pattern. Country specific features include for example differences in the macroeconomic environment, competition, structures of factor markets,regulation, technology policy including public support. On the other hand, the differences in innovation behaviour could also be due to varying sector compositions of economic activity given that innovation behaviour is sector-specific.The authors use the the following input,output and behavioural indicators for the cross country comparison:
1. % of firms that have successfully introduced product and/or process innovations
2. % of firms that perform R&D and the R&D intensity (R&D expenditure over turnover)
3. % of innovation expenditure to total turnover (innovation intensity)
4. % of sales coming from new products
5. % of innovative firms with co-operations in innovation projects
6. % of innovative firms that received public financial support for innovative projcts
The results of the study reveal that the country-related -rather than the sectoral differences- have a greater role in explaining the differences in innovative performance with the excpetion of the inovation intensity indicator.