How far a company in the UK faces barriers to new product innovation - Essay Example

enterprises were surveyed , mostly across the manufacturing and services sectors and predominantly those firms which had more than 10 employees, and focused primarily on the development of new products. The innovativeness of films in the 2005 survey was categorized into three distinct sub classes, i.e., (a) novel innovators, who introduced at least one new product in the market (b) imitating innovators who have not introduced at least one new product and (c) incomplete innovators, who had engaged in innovation activities but had not introduced any new product or process during the period.

When all the participant firms were assessed on the basis of novel innovators, it may be noted that only 16% from all the various sectors were found to belong in this first category, as depicted in the graph below: As clearly evident from the graph above, manufacturing firms appear to have been the largest innovators, followed closely by financial and business services, and these sectors have also been the most profitable sectors. As compared to this, the approximate percentage of firms engaging in continuing new innovation activity in the same sectors in 2007 is provided in the table and graph below: It is significant to note that construction is the sector that shows the highest percentage of new innovation activity, while similar activities in the manufacturing sector appear to have declined (See Figute 3.

1 in 2007 survey). However, when this is compared to the extent of continuing innovation activity, the graphical representation changes as follows: This reveals that innovation activity has been continuing in the manufacturing sector, while the extent of continuing innovation is low in the construction sector. This appears to suggest that the patterns of innovative activity have changed; the drive to develop new products was greater in the manufacturing sector in 2005 which has been continued, while the manufacturing sector may be experiencing a similar drive towards