Less than a quarter of all firms in the Azores developed innovation activities between 2016 and 2018, a ratio that places the archipelago among the regions of the country with the lowest percentage of innovative firms, according to the 2016-2018 Innovation Survey published by INE.

"The Centre region, the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon and the Autonomous Region of Madeira had very similar percentages of innovative companies, ranging from 33.5% to 34.7%," reveals the National Statistics Institute, adding that "in the Algarve and the Autonomous Region of the Azores, the percentages of innovative companies were lower: 28.5% and 24.3% respectively.

It should be noted that, in the country as a whole, 32.4% of companies developed innovation activities from 2016 to 2018, i.e., those companies introduced product and process innovation.

According to the Innovation Survey, in the Azores, in that period, 24.3% of companies developed innovation activities, 15.1% introduced product innovation (goods or services), 21.5% introduced process innovation and 23.8% introduced product and/or process innovation.

The survey also shows that 1.4% of companies developed intramural research and development (R&D) activities and that 1.4% of companies contracted R&D services to other companies or public or private research organizations (extramural R&D).

Product Innovation
The Innovation Survey reveals that in the period under analysis, in the Azores, 13.5% of companies introduced new or improved goods to the market and 13.7% of companies introduced new or improved services.

On a national level, 18.6% of companies introduced new or improved goods and 17.7% of companies introduced new or improved services.

"In the North, Centre and Alentejo regions, the percentage of companies that introduced new or improved goods was higher than the percentage of companies that introduced new or improved services. In the other regions the opposite was true. It is noteworthy, however, that in both situations the percentage differences between the introduction of (new or improved) goods and services were not significant", as described in the INE document.

However, it should be noted that the regions with the highest percentages of turnover resulting from the introduction of new or improved products were the Autonomous Region of the Azores (15.5%), the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon (12.4%) and the North (11.1%).

"In all regions, the percentage of turnover resulting from the introduction of new products for the company was higher than the percentage of turnover resulting from the introduction of new products for the market, this difference being more evident in the Autonomous Region of the Azores and less evident in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon", according to the document.

Process Innovation
From 2016 to 2018, 15% of Azorean companies introduced methods of work organization, decision making or human resource management; 14.4% of companies introduced methods for information processing or communication and 13.4% introduced methods for producing goods or providing services.

In the country as a whole, INE reveals that 20.4% of the companies have introduced methods of work organization, decision making or human resources management; 17.8% of the companies have introduced methods for information processing or communication and 17.5% have introduced methods for producing goods or providing services.

"In all regions, it can be seen that, in percentage terms, more companies have introduced methods of work organization, decision making or human resources management, except in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, which has had more companies introducing methods to produce goods or services", as revealed.

Azorean companies spent 4.2 million on innovation activities
In 2018, the total expenditure on innovation activities by Azorean companies amounted to 4.2 million euros, of which 32.8% corresponded to intramural R&D expenditure (1.4 M euros); 65.3% to other innovation expenditure (2.8 M euros) and 1.9% to expenditure on extramural R&D activities (100 thousand euros), reveals INE.

On the national level, total expenditure on innovation activities was 2,599 million: 46.2% corresponded to intramural R&D expenditure (EUR 1,200 million); 43.9% to other innovation expenditure (EUR 1141 million) and 9.9% to extramural R&D expenditure (EUR 257 million). INE points out that, regarding the analysis by region, companies in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area invested the most in innovation activities (EUR 1008.6 million), followed by companies from the North of the country (EUR 874,7 million).