Benchmarking Regional Innovation: A Comparison of Bavaria, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

Innovation Relay Centres, collaborative research projects and framework
programmes.

6. Benchmarks: Inputs and Organisation of Innovation

In this section we consider benchmarks for plants’ innovation resources (i.e. R&D,
graduate employment), the internal organisation of the innovation process (i.e. the
extent of multi-functional working) and the strength and nature of plants’ external
linkages. Each of these factors has been shown to be important in determining both
whether or not a plant undertakes innovation and the subsequent market success of
that innovative product or process (e.g. Brouwer and Kleinknecht, 1996; Love and
Roper, 2000)

In terms of R&D spending, earlier regional comparisons have suggested that in 1996,
aggregate levels of R&D investments by business, government and higher education
were higher in Bavaria than in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (Table 1).
Survey data provides some insight into the distribution of this R&D activity between
plants, with the proportion of manufacturing plants undertaking some R&D also being
higher (62 per cent) in Bavaria than in either Northern Ireland (51 per cent) and the
Republic of Ireland (56 per cent, Table 2). Figure 5 summarises changes in the
proportions of plants undertaking R&D since 1993 for all plants. In Bavaria there has
been a small overall decline in the proportion of plants undertaking R&D over this
period, a pattern repeated across each of the three plant sizebands (Figure 5). In
contrast, although the overall proportion of plants undertaking R&D in Northern
Ireland and Republic of Ireland remains below that of the German study region, it has
increased since 1993. In the Republic of Ireland, this increase was due to a rise in the
proportion of plants with 100 plus employees undertaking R&D, while proportion of
smaller plants undertaking R&D fell marginally. In Northern Ireland the pattern was
slightly different, with an increase in the proportion of R&D performers in the 20-99
and 500 plus employee sizebands outweighing a decline in the 100-499 sizeband
(Figure 5).

The increase in the proportion of plants undertaking R&D in Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland is welcome given longstanding concerns in both areas about the

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