On Causes and Outcomes: The most Important Differences between Innovative and Non-Innovative Companies

Some companies are very innovative, facing no trouble responding to new trends. Other companies heavily struggle with innovation. This thesis develops an empirical analysis of the most important differences between innovative and non-innovative companies. We gathered data about the most important determinants of innovation by distributing a questionnaire among company owners in the Dutch food sector. The most important differences between innovative and non-innovative companies are: the presence of financial resources and the degree of cooperation. Furthermore the degree of intrinsic motivation and the composition of brainstorm sessions also have significant influence on the innovativeness of companies.