New Eurostat research has found that Ireland has the highest proportion of high-growth enterprises in the EU, ahead of the UK, Portugal, Hungary and Bulgaria.
The latest research published by the official statistics unit of the EU also found that high-growth enterprises have a significant impact on employment. In 2015, 1 in 5 employees in Ireland worked in high-growth enterprises.
Eurostat defines a high-growth enterprise as a company with average annualised growth in number of employees greater than 10 per cent a year over a three-year period. Ireland is now the first for high-growth enterprises in Europe, having moved up three places in the rankings from the previous report.
High-growth enterprises drive innovation
OECD research has previously pointed to innovation as a key factor in the high growth of firms. The OECD further found that high-growth enterprises in turn drive job creation and innovation. Ireland’s position as first for high-growth enterprises in Europe is an indicator of the culture of innovation that continues to deliver competitive advantage for partners in all sectors worldwide.
In 2017, the European Commission’s Innovation Scorecard also ranked Irish SMEs number one for innovation.
Ireland’s open and fast-moving economy has fostered business people and high-growth companies with an unequalled track record of using innovation to meet the needs of global market leaders.
Customers of Irish companies around the world leverage this innovation to improve operational efficiency and productivity and enhance their own product portfolios.
The latest Eurostat findings can be seen as an outcome of two decades of investment in science and technology. The Irish Government continues to prioritise innovation first as it implements its Innovation 2020 strategy. A main aim of the strategy is to ensure that companies based in Ireland outperform their competitors in international markets, as they do in the latest Eurostat results.
