Benchmarking Innovation in Europe

Abstract

The article deals with benchmarking in the field of innovation in European countries. The concept of benchmarking is widely used at the firms’ level as well as in the field of research, innovation, knowledge. Experiences promoted by the European Union aimed at positioning the various countries and regions with the aim of implementing economic wealth and social cohesion policies through enhanced innovation performance are analysed. Many indicators are used in benchmarking exercises – more than one hundred in the various regular publications; they are presented in two modalities: individually, through tables and graphs, and in a synthetic form through the calculation of composite indicators. In the article, examples of the two modalities are reported. In particular the methodological features of composite indicators are addressed, and their strengths and weaknesses are dealt with. It is concluded that, having innovation benchmarking become a widely spread tool in the formulation of innovation policies, it is appropriate that it is further developed from a methodological point of view and that analysts and policy maker use it in a more skilful way, being aware of its strengths and weaknesses.