Innovation drivers for Dutch businesses

Abstract

Abstract Innovation is considered to be one of the most crucial elements for having successful economic development. At the moment the Netherlands is among one of the leading innovators in the world. There is however some critique from the European Union on the current Dutch policies concerning tax credits for innovation. Additionally, the R&D expenditure of Dutch companies within the Netherlands is lagging behind compared to other European countries. The objective of this exploratory research is thus to understand what drives innovation within the Netherlands. For the Dutch government it is crucial to get a better understanding of this topic in order to improve the current policies and enhance innovation within the Netherlands. In this research an extensive literature review is conducted in order to review which factors might be drivers or barriers on innovation within the Netherlands. Subsequently, a principal component and regression analysis was conducted on questionnaire data from the governmental funded strategic innovation project. As a result, six internal drivers were found that have a significant effect on innovative performance. However, due to unsatisfactory data on the external drivers and barriers found in the literature, more research is needed in order to obtain an appropriate statistical model where the internal and external drivers and barriers are combined. Keywords: innovation, innovative performance, drivers, Netherlands, policy, capabilities.