Workshop No. 1: Barriers to Internationalisation and Growth
In the framework of the PRO INNO Europe® project INNO GRIPS II, a study has been prepared on "Barriers to internationalisation and growth of EU's innovative companies". This study was developed under the leadership of WIFO, and its findings have been validated by an expert workshop held in Brussels on 28 September 2010.
The 285 pages final study report is now available to the public for download.
The report shows that internationalisation and innovation are closely related. Therefore, barriers to innovation also act in parallel as barriers to internationalization. At the same time, barriers to foreign trade and international business also have a negative impact on innovation.
This implies that policies supporting innovation and internationalisation should be interlinked or be designed in such a way that they stimulate innovation and internationalisation simultaneously. The authors of the report suggest a systematic and EU-wide screening of existing national export promotion programs and innovation support measures. Such an exercise should highlight best practices, and should be a source for policy learning to EU Member States.
The analysis of the barriers to innovation and to internationalisation supports the view that innovation and internationalisation are two sides of the same coin. The removal of barriers to innovation will positively affect the internationalisation efforts of innovative firms, whereas the elimination of barriers to internationalisation is likely to foster innovation activities of firms. Indeed, firm-specific barriers to innovation and firm-specific barriers to internationalisation are largely congruent. However, the study results also show that the perception of barriers varies across countries. Firms in technologically more advanced countries are more likely to perceive both innovation and internationalisation barriers as more pressing issues, because they are also more heavily engaged in such activities. In addition, barriers can vary across countries because sectoral specialisations and the principal drivers of innovation per sector differ across countries. This calls for a differentiated policy approach.
Another important conclusion emerging from the analysis is that there is a considerable number of non-innovators that do not engage in innovation and internationalization at all. This is because the existence of certain barriers force them to limit their engagement in such activities all together. These firms are distinct from non-innovators that do internationalise or from firms that do not internationalise, but don’t innovate, because they operate on local markets that suffice for their growth ambitions. Hence, the former sub-groups also represent an important target for policy. Specific policies targeting these groups of firms could lead to a substantial increase in the number of innovative companies in the European Union.
This event was the first of a series of workshops covering different innovation challenges. It was organised in the framework of the EC INNO-Grips project. INNO-Grips is supporting policy makers in adopting appropriate policy responses to emerging innovation needs, trends and phenomena. It analyses framework conditions, barriers and drivers to innovation and innovation policy and offers intelligence on international developments in these field.
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