Identification of innovating firms through technological innovation indicators: an application to the Spanish ceramic tile industry

The identification of technologically innovating firms is related to the development of indicators of their innovation activity. In this study, we carry out a review of indicators of firms’ technological innovation activity and then classify them according to whether they are based on inputs or outputs of the innovation process, and to the sources of the information they consider, whether primary or secondary. Their applicability as indicators of firm innovation is analyzed in the Spanish ceramic tile industry for the period from 1994 to 1996. From the results obtained we are able to conclude that the method based on direct information—self-assessment by managers—is more effective in identifying both product and process innovators. Within the set of methods based on secondary information, the literature-based innovation output (LBIO) method is the one which provides the best results when identifying product innovators alone.