Patterns in UK company innovation styles: New evidence from the CBI innovation trends survey

This paper reports on the results of an analysis at Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition (CRIC) of the data from the 1996 and 1997 Survey of Innovation Trends conducted by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in conjunction with the NatWest Bank in the UK. This is one of the few, direct surveys of innovation activity, as opposed to R&D and patenting actvity, which is conducted in the UK It is characterized by the fact that it asks responding firms to report on trends in a wide variety of aspects of their innovative behaviour. The central feature of the analysis in this paper is a factor analysis of the answers to a set of 15 questions on different aspects of innovative behaviour. This results in a three-factor solution which reveals three distinct ‘styles’ of innovation in the behaviour of respondents. These three styles are shown to be broadly applicable to both manufacturing industry firms and service industry firms in the sample, thus revealing a dimension of innovation in the service sector which is not so readily disclosed by analysis of R&D or patent statistics. Statistical modelling of the constraints and incentives influencing innovation shows that while constraints do not appear to be very significant, competitive pressure and the utilization of collaborative linkages are strongly positively associated with innovation, and especially with a more radical s o b of innovation. Ihe paper concludes that the CBI survey provides data about innovation in the UK which are not easily provided through other means. Its format allows certain aspects of innovation—particularly the similarities and differences between manufacturing and services —to be examined in an interesting way.