Top 10 innovative regions in Europe 2008

Statistics are made for innovation, too. One of the more adequate measures is the innovation index developed by the Statistical Office of Baden-Württemberg, a federal state in Germany.

According to their index the ten most innovative regions in Europe are:

1. Baden-Württemberg, a state in the south-west of Germany (our home state)
2. Berlin (state), the capital of Germany
3. Ile de France, the region around Paris, the capital of France
4. Bayern (Bavaria), a state in the south-east of Germany
5. Finnland
6. Bremen, a state in the north-west of Germany
7. Sweden
8. Hessen, a state in the mid-west of Germany
9. Denmark
10. The Grand-Duché of Luxembourg

There is a nice colored map that depicts the innovation level across the different regions in Europe. We have put the top 10 spots on a Google map for your convenience:

View Larger Map

It is interesting to understand how the ranking is determined. The index is derived by an as-is (niveau) part and a dynamic part, which measures the average change rates of the as-is part across years.

As you have seen in the ranking above, larger countries such as France and Germany are split into smaller regions (so called NUTS2 regions), while smaller countries such as Finnland and Sweden are ranked as a whole.

Besides R&D expense and R&D personell also the share of employees in high-tech industries is measured. Further the share of employees in knowledge intensive services as well as the number of people working in so-called HRSTO jobs (science, education and technical jobs). The last metric part of the index calculation is the number of patents issued per resident.

Worldmapper - Patents 2002

Worldmapper.org nicely visualizes the intellectual property generation across countries. According to their website: “In 2002, 312 thousand patents were granted around the world. More than a third of these were granted in Japan. Just under a third were granted in the United States.
A patent is supposed to protect the ideas and inventions that people have. Patenting something will then allow the owner of the patent to charge others for the usage of an idea or invention. The aim is to reward the creator for their hard work or intelligence. But patents can prevent people from using good ideas because they cannot afford to do so.”

They also offer a nice PDF to print.

A quarter of all territories had no new patents in 2002, so will not profit from these in future years as others will.

Successful enterprises are rare and high impact comes late

While attending Erkko Autios lecture at the Heidelberger Innovationsforum on November 25th, we have come across interesting figures about the success of enterpreneurs and their enterprises in the U.S. :

These figures actually should shatter most of the public policies that focus on getting many enterpreneurs started in certain industry domains. Another study by the SBA Office of Advocacy in the US titled “High Impact Firms: Gazelles Revisited” shows that success often does not come at the start of companies. Companies classified above as high impact companies (that is companies that experience high growth and generate jobs) are actually quite old, on average 25 years ! These companies are generating almost all of U.S. job growth and also not predominantly high-tech. So, contrary to common belief, it is not the usual Internet startup of a college drop-out that ensures our future prosperity, but often the hidden champion around the corner in established industries.

Prof. Scott A. Shane has written an interesting book,The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By that supports these lines of thought and describes many more examples of common misconceptions about enterpreneurship.