NSF: Companies Investing in R&D Made More Innovations

(Investor.gov)

Preliminary data from the National Science Foundation’s 2008 Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS) show large differences in making innovations when companies in the U.S. with R&D activity are compared to those without any R&D activity.

These data are based on respondents to the survey and represent an estimated 1.5 million for-profit companies, publicly or privately held, with five or more employees, active in the United States in 2008.

The survey shows about 47,000 of the estimated 1.5 million for-profit companies (3%) performed and/or funded R&D in 2008. About two-thirds (66%) of companies investing in R&D were product innovators  — defined as introducing one or more new or significantly improved goods or services — in the 2006–08 period, and about half (51%) were process innovators — adding one or more new or significantly improved ways of doing business. The far larger number of companies without any R&D, about 97 percent of all companies, were much less likely to innovate. Only about 7 percent reported being product innovators in 2006–08, and about 8 percent were process innovators.

The survey shows more than 1 in 5 manufacturers (22%) introduced product innovations. The same percentage of manufacturers (22%) report process innovations.  Manufacturers represented about 8 percent of the companies in the 1.5 million population. Computer-electronics and chemicals manufacturers had the highest rate of product innovations, with more than four in 10 companies in each group. These same manufacturing industries were also the most likely to make process innovations, about one-third of each group.

The larger cohort of non-manufacturing enterprises –92 percent of the 1.5 million total — reported lower rates of innovation. Only about 8 percent of these companies said they made either product or process innovations. The highest rates of product innovations occurred among computer systems design/related services (35%) and scientific R&D services (33%). About a quarter of each group said they made process innovations.