Some 40 pct of firms engage in innovation activities

ANKARA

Some 39.8 percent of enterprises with 10 or more employees were considered as “innovation active” during 2020-2022, according to a survey by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

This was 38.5 percent in the 2018-2020 period, said TÜİK on Dec. 12.

Over 70 percent of large enterprises with more than 250 employees introduced new or improved products (goods or services).

In the industry sector, 43 percent of the enterprises engaged in innovation activities, while the corresponding rate was 36 percent in the services sector.

Some 19.8 percent of the businesses were “product innovative,” slightly higher than 19.7 percent in the 2018-2020 period, according to TÜİK.

Among product innovators, the share of enterprises with at least one goods innovation was 81.4 percent and it was 68.1 percent for the enterprises with at least one service innovation, TÜİK said.

“When considering the new or improved products introduced to the market, 96.6 percent of product innovations were new to the enterprise and 75 percent of them were new to the market.”

Some 35 percent of enterprises were “business process innovative” also defined as basic business functions, up from 30.2 percent in the previous survey, TÜİK added.

The survey also found that 28.7 percent of enterprises engaged in innovation activities received financial support from various sources with 46.5 percent receiving funds from the central government for research and development (R&D) or other innovation activities.

Some 7 percent of the enterprises indicated that they received financial support from the European Union institutions.