FINLANDS INNOVATION STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Element

Assessment* Key strengths

Key weaknesses

Money:
investment in
science and
innovation

Strong

Very strong overall, business and

government investment in R&D, even
when adjusted for industrial structure;
good access to seed, start-up and
early stage VC funding

Relatively more limited access to later

stage venture capital and growth
finance; somewhat lower investment in
non-R&D intangibles

Talent: people
and skills for
innovation

Medium
strong

Strong basic (literacy, numeracy,

problem solving) skills;
entrepreneurship part of school
curriculum; high proportion of
population with tertiary education;
relatively high proportion of work
force are STEM graduates; strong
researcher base in industry; high
absorptive capacity of firms, including
SMEs

Limited critical mass of internationally

mobile students and researchers;
somewhat limited ability to attract
world-class researchers; [no
benchmarking data on management
skills available]

Knowledge
assets and
exploitation:
access to and
exploitation of
science, ideas,
expertise and
collaboration

Medium
strong

Strong academic/business
collaboration, including with SMEs; high
quality research institutions in targeted
technology areas; large number of
patent registrations (but can be
misleading as a metric as highly sector
dependent)

Limited internationally recognised

academic research; relatively weak
international collaboration networks in
science

Innovation
policies:
governments
actions to
encourage
innovation

Strong

High quality intellectual property

regime; established and wellregarded national innovation agency;
successful growth support programmes;
strong open data initiatives; relatively
pro-innovation public procurement;
innovation policies relatively well
coordinated (based on systems view
of innovation); policy evaluation wellestablished

Fragmented policy approach in previous

parliamentary period (2011-2015);
uncertain impact of recent introduction
of R&D tax credits

Broader
environment:
ease of and
incentives for
innovating

Medium

Relatively business-friendly
environment (except some labour
market policies); high-quality
infrastructure (especially broadband);
a number of highly effective
technology clusters; firms relatively fast
adopters of new technology

Mixed ability to attract foreign R&D

investment; surprisingly negative
attitudes towards science; inflexible
wage determination and hiring and
firing practices; small and not very
competitive local market

Innovation
outputs: overall
innovativeness of
the economy

Medium

Relatively high proportion of

innovative companies and company
sales from new innovations;
comparative advantage in knowledgeintensive, high-tech products; strongly
positive technology balance of
payments

Mediocre overall labour productivity;

relatively low levels of early stage,
growth-oriented and internationally
oriented entrepreneurial activity;
relatively small proportion of exporting
firms; lower levels of service sector and
non-technological innovation

* Strengths and weaknesses have been assessed relative to comparable countries rather than on an absolute basis
Sources: Insights from international benchmarking of the UK science and innovation system (Tera Allas for Department, for Business,
Innovation and Skills, 2014); European Commission Innovation Union Scoreboard 2015; OECD Science, Technology and Industry
Outlook 2014; The Global Innovation Index 2014; World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2014 - 2015