Indicators for measuring innovation activity in construction – an international comparison / Bau_Patente

Aims

The construction industry is not generally considered as an innovative sector. And in fact, this impression can arise by taking only traditional, input-oriented indicators such as research and development expenditures into account.

Such a narrow view of innovation performance in the construction industry describes the current innovation dynamics of the sector in an insufficient way. Rather, in order to adequately cover and a understanding the sector’s way of innovating, a broad innovation understanding should be applied. This includes not only taking into account technology-based innovations, but also process innovation, innovation diffusions or the innovative relationships between actors in the construction industry. Furthermore, understanding innovation in construction can be underpinned when considering the entire industry’s value chain (including R&D, or service providers), and not only its core parts. In such a perspective, the innovation picture of the industry changes massively.

Procedure

Against this background, the project analyses quantitative indicators of innovation activities in the German construction industry’s value chain and will draw international comparisons. Data results from patent applications at the European Patent Office (EPO). For the period from 2005 up to the present the relevant patent activities of Germany with those of the European countries, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and Hungary will be collected and analyzed.