Project 1.2.2: CIS
Project Team
Prof. Bart Van Looy
Side information
The CIS database is developed and maintained by and under responsibility of policy research centre “R&D Indicators” (SOOI). STOIO will have access to this database through collaboration with SOOI, which will be facilitated by the promotorship of Bart Van Looy en Reinhilde Veugelers of SOOI. Although the database will not be developed within STOIO, we nevertheless include a brief overview of the database, as it will be used in different research projects (cfr. infra).
Content
The Community Innovation Survey (CIS), launched in 1991 jointly by Eurostat and the Innovation and SME Program, aims at improving the empirical basis of innovation theory and policy at the European level by surveying innovation activities at the enterprise level in the Member States’ economies. The CIS surveys collect firm-level data on innovations across member states by means of largely harmonized questionnaires. The first, second, and third version of the Flemish CIS survey have been carried out by IWT. The fourth version of the CIS survey for Flanders has been conducted by the Policy Research Centre for R&D Statistics. In this survey, data were collected on the period 2002-2004. The fifth CIS survey,covering the years 2005 to 2006, is currently being conducted in collaboration with CFS-Stat. Further CIS-surveys are scheduled for 2009 and 2011.
The CIS delivers basic indicators necessary to evaluate recent developments in innovation behavior and to reinforce policies if necessary. Among others, indicators include the share of product and process innovating firms in the economy, total innovation expenditure, sources of information for innovation, firm alliances for innovation projects, output of innovation projects such as sales with new products, cost reductions or quality improvements due to the implementation of new processes and the use of different intellectual property protection mechanisms.
Methodology
For the Flemish CIS survey, a sample from the population of Flemish enterprises is taken. The Belfirst company database of the National Bank of Belgium is used as the data source for carrying out this sampling procedure. Two dimensions are taken into account for sampling: company size and industry (according to NACE classifications). Companies with less than 10 employees are removed and all companies with more than 250 employees are included in the sample. In Flanders, the survey has previously been implemented as online questionnaire as well, so that respondents can choose to either return the questionnaire physically by regular mail or directly provide the requested information online. The survey implements the recommended guidelines for the collection of internationally harmonized innovation data as suggested in the so-called Oslo-Manual by Eurostat and the OECD. Sample results can be weighted so that conclusions about innovation behavior in the population of firms can be drawn.