New Innovation Models

Switzerland is one of the most competitive countries in the world. Commercially successful innovation activities are an essential part of this achievement. However, for some years innovation statistics show a significant decline in the fraction of research and development (R&D) active companies in Switzerland.

In autumn 2022, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI commissioned a first short study to analyse the decline in R&D-performing companies and trends in the innovation activity of Swiss companies by means of six hearings with representatives from industry sectors. This study revealed several factors that pose major challenges to companies’ innovation activities. These include, above all:

  1. Growing centricity of consumers and generally clients in processes of innovation,
  2. Widespread digitalisation of innovative products and services,
  3. Marked demands for considering sustainability in innovation projects,
  4. Increasing influence of regulations,
  5. Transformation of the competitive environment (e.g., geographically, new entrants from technology industries, disruptive start-ups, etc.).

Most importantly the first study made clear that the conditions and contexts of innovation are to some degree sector-specific, and a “one-size-fits-all” approach is neither suitable to understanding corporate innovation activities nor from a policy perspective appropriate to support them. Hence, this second project is dedicated to new sectoral innovation models and their consequences for innovation policies. Against this background, three key areas of adjustment were defined to better understand the new innovation models, identify potential weaknesses in the current (regulatory) policy framework and, if necessary, propose recommendations for Swiss innovation policy: 1) Data-related practices and needs in corporate innovation activities, 2) sustainability-related innovation activities and drivers and bottlenecks of such innovations, 3) collaboration practices and needs and 4) regulations influencing innovation activities.

The project hence focuses on the four themes of data, sustainability, collaboration and regulation in innovation. It analyses the current situation in selected sectors from the perspectives of innovation economics, innovation management and innovation policy. It will be conducted by three Swiss organisations with widespread experiences with economic policy-related analyses and excellent knowledge of the Swiss research and innovation system: FHNW School of Business (coordination, innomod.business@fhnw.ch), ETH Zürich, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, and University of St. Gallen, Center for Aviation & Space Competence (with Prof. em. EPFL Dominique Foray). A steering board made up of representatives of the institutions funding the study will accompany the project and secure close link-ages to both, industry and public innovation policy, in Switzerland.

Research questions

The project aims to answer research questions, involve industry experts and policy-makers in the Federation and cantons, and generate recommendations in the four areas specified above. Above all the research will address the following questions:

  1. Data-related practices and needs in corporate innovation activities: What type of data do companies use/need most for innovations? What data is generated internally, what is obtained from external sources, and what is being missed? What are the barriers to using more data? How has data affected innovations of products, processes and business models? How do “big data”, AI, and other digital technologies help or hinder innovations?
  2. Sustainability-related innovation activities and drivers and bottlenecks of such innovations: How frequent are sustainability-related innovations? What activities and processes are used to create sustainability innovations? How important is R&D and how important are other innovation activities for sustainable innovation? What triggers and what blocks them, and how are business models affected by sustainability innovations?
  3. Collaboration practices and needs: What benefits or added value do innovation collaborations generate? What collaboration/ecosystem constellations drive innovation success? Which channels of knowledge transfer between, e.g., universities and companies are functional? How do firms evaluate the existing support measures to different forms of innovation collaborations (e.g., bilateral, multilateral)?
  4. Regulation: Is the timing of regulations adequate? Are areas relevant for innovation overregulated? Where are regulations missing? What type of regulations, e.g. related to the environment, consumers, products, work or knowledge and Intellectual Property, affect corporate innovation activities? Which levels of government are responsible for the most influential regulations? How do regulations influence corporate innovation activities? What activities and strategies do companies use to comply with the regulations?

SFTI will be represented in the finance stream amongst SBA & SVV.

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