Innovation Europe > News > Innovation EU Vol1-1 > Finland

Its innovation performance was above or close to the EU average in all individual indicators, and the country belongs to the innovation leaders group. Among the EU countries, Finland ranks second out of 27 countries and third out of 37 countries covered in the SII 2007, after Sweden and Switzerland. The country ranks among the top eight in each of the five dimensions through which innovation performance of the countries is assessed in the EIS. In comparison to the EU average, the lead of Finland and other innovation leaders has been declining over time, that is, their progress has been slower than the average growth rate of the EIS SII of the EU average. The trend results can be at least partly explained by high starting values for a number of indicators, making improvements harder to achieve over time. The country’s good performance in international competitiveness and innovation comparisons has also been noted in the domestic policy debate.

Main innovation challenges

• Transformation of firm strategies and emerging new innovation models, changes in company strategies (including offshoring, shift towards globally distributed value networks), increasing importance of alliances and partnerships, as well as changing modes of innovation are asking for a re-thinking of innovation policies in terms of goals, focuses, design and implementation.
• Increase Finland’s attractiveness for investments.
• A need to broaden the base of innovative growth-orientated enterprises.

Action

Finland’s innovation performance has continued to be positive, and the challenge Finland is facing is not so much to improve specific areas but to maintain its leading position and forge further ahead. For that purpose, relevant benchmarks cannot in all cases be found within the EU context, but have to be looked for globally to keep up with the leading edge in specific areas and businesses. The country has developed a highly effective innovation environment covering a wide range of technological expertise. The focus now needs to be on how to strengthen these foundations for future demands and simultaneously shift the emphasis towards a broad-based innovation policy focusing not only on so-called high-technology sectors, but also promoting innovative and internationally competitive solutions and applications throughout the Finnish economy and society.

Future actions should take into account the need to design innovation policy, which simultaneously creates the basics and preconditions for a broad-based innovation policy, and makes conscious choices related to focusing on certain areas. The planned move towards broad-based innovation policy should not maximise but rather minimise public intervention, as noted by the experts’ workshops during the preparation of the national innovation strategy.