Larger, more international and younger: these are the innovative companies of the Valencian Community according to PICEI 2022

The Science Park of the University of Valencia hosts the presentation of the results of the fourth edition of the Program for the Characterization of Innovative Companies to Promote their Projection (PICEI), which is funded by the Valencian Innovation Agency (AVI) and the collaboration of the Network of Science Parks of the Valencian Community

For the fourth consecutive year, the University of Valencia Science Park Foundation (FPCUV) has coordinated the Program for the Characterization of Innovative Companies to Promote their Projection (PICEI). Among the main conclusions drawn from the survey carried out by the PICEI in 2022, in which 938 innovative companies in the Valencian Community participated out of the 5,000 that exist, it was found that within sectors such as Industry, Construction and Services the companies are larger, more international and younger.

The presentation of the PICEI 2022 started with the telematic intervention of Andrés García Reche, executive vice-president of the Agència Valenciana de la Innovació (AVI), who highlighted that "since 2020 the number of active companies in the Valencian Community has increased by more than 1%, that is, the trend is positive." In total, he put at 374,917 companies that formed the productive fabric of the Comunitat in 2022. However, he regretted that "despite the large mass of companies that exist, very few of them innovate. In absolute terms we are talking about almost 2,500, which represents 0.66% of the total."

 Presentation of PICEI 2022. Board Room of the Science Park of the University of Valencia. Photo:FPCUV

"Despite the large mass of companies that exist, very few of them innovate. In absolute terms we are talking about almost 2,500, which represents 0.6% of the total," explains Andrés García Reche, executive vice-president of the Agència Valenciana de la Innovació (AVI)

Along with García Reche, also taking part in the event were Pedro Carrasco, director of the University of Valencia Science Park; Carlos Mínguez Barberá and Mª. Ángeles Rodríguez Pérez, from the company GFK EMER AD HOC RESEARCH, S.L.; and Francisco Soler Tarazona and Gaspar Álvarez Barba, representatives of the company APUNTE ASESORES Y CONSULTORES, S.L.L. Likewise, the executive vice-president of the AVI emphasized that the objective is that "the Valencian innovation system works." For this, he points to the need for "the collaboration between the different agents that make up this system to be fluid and systemic, and that therefore there is not a single gram of gray matter that is outside the possibilities of contributing to the improvement of competitiveness and innovation of our companies."

For his part, Carrasco, as to whom this report should be addressed to, pointed out that "in an environment where there is so much talk about innovation, there is a risk of losing the meaning of the word, because everyone is doing it." "This report, which would be presented outside the circles in which we operate, could present in society the advantages of innovation in the company and thus convince people that innovation is not a buzzword," he added.

In addition, the director of the PCUV highlighted the most important aspects of a report that "aims to characterize the innovative companies" of the Valencian Community through a picture that shows "how are the innovative companies that have a certain degree of success and how they innovate."  In addition, as Carrasco explained, the report focused on identifying possible solutions in cross-cutting issues, providing dialogue and contact between all the actors of the business ecosystem, improving the visibility and knowledge of innovative companies and making known to the institutions the profiles of this type of companies and exporting them.

From right to left: Rosa Donat, vice rector of Innovation and Transfer of the UV; Fernando Zárraga, manager of the FPCUV; and José María Martínez Santamaría, coordinator of Economic Promotion at the City Council of Paterna. Photo: FPCUV

The director of the PCUV, Pedro Carrasco, emphasized that the report identifies possible solutions in cross-cutting issues, provides dialogue and contact between all the actors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, improves the visibility and knowledge of innovative companies and provides institutions with profiles of this type of companies and export them

Conclusions of the PICEI 2022

In conclusion, the director of the PCUV put an end to his speech with the main conclusions drawn in the PICEI 2022, which has as a reference the economic result of 2021. Of the 938 innovative companies that participated in the report (excluding the self-employed), 40.6% focus their activities on the Services sector (professional, scientific and technical activities 23.7%, health activities 10.3% and information and communications 4.3%). 31.9% belong to the Construction sector, while the remaining 27.5% belong to Industry, mainly manufacturing (25.2%).

As regards the size of these companies according to the number of employees, 86.1% can be considered micro-companies, since they have less than 10 workers, 76.8% have 1 to 5 employees and 9.3% have 6 to 9 employees. As far as turnover is concerned, 67.9% reported a turnover of no more than 500,000 euros in 2021, specifically 28.3% have a turnover of less than 100,000 euros and 39.6% between 100,000 and 500,000 euros. 10% of the companies report a turnover between €500,000 and €1,000,000. A turnover of more than 1 million euros is reported by 11.4% of the companies.

Likewise, of the total number of participating companies, only 8.1% stated that they were part of a group of companies (mostly 6.9% national) and 18.4% stated that they had made sales and/or provided services to other countries during the past year 2021. As for their location, half of the companies (50.4%) are located in the province of Valencia, while 37.8% are in the province of Alicante and the remaining 11.8% in the province of Castellón. 

Finally, in terms of age, 34.1% started their activity in the last 10 years, while 30.2% did so in the period between 2001 and 2010. In addition, the Limited Liability Company (S.L.) is the most widespread legal form, since 7 out of 10 companies (71.0%) have this legal status.

From left to right: Mª. Ángeles Rodríguez and Carlos Mínguez from the company GFK EMER AD HOC RESEARCH, S.L. Photo: FPCUV

How the report was made

For the preparation of the PICEI 2022, the PCUV relied on two external companies that made it possible to carry out the report. GFK EMER AD HOC RESEARCH, S.L., with 45 years of experience, was in charge of the study in all its phases. On the other hand, APUNTE ASESORES Y CONSULTORES, S.L.L. was in charge of preparing the scorecard with the figures extracted from the PICEI for its visualization on the PCUV website. 

At this point, Carlos Mínguez, stressed that during the study they looked at "companies in the Valencian Community that belong to potentially innovative sectors of activity with the aim of identifying and characterizing innovative companies in the region". In addition, he added that the study was conducted in two stages: the first of 701 interviews in which it was determined whether the company was innovative or not "through a series of items that we were marking, and those that met any of these items were innovative and those that did not meet any could be separated to create a profile to compare the non-innovative with those that are". Subsequently, we sought to increase the number of innovative companies in the study with 237 new interviews, of which 214 were classified as innovative. 

María Ángeles Rodríguez explained the profile of innovative and non-innovative companies.  In this regard, Rodriguez stressed that "innovative companies are larger in terms of employees, turnover because they are more internationalized and that those located in the province of Alicante stand out in terms of innovation". Regarding the youth of the companies, "we see that most of the innovative companies have been founded in the last 20 years".

Francisco Soler, strategic and financial consultant at APUNTE ASESORES Y CONSULTORES, S.L.L., closed the presentation of the PICEI, exposing his work that he carried out through the Microsoft PowerBI tool, together with his colleague Gaspar Álvarez Barba in the fourth edition of the report of characterization of companies. "What the tool does is to collect data to present it in a user-friendly way" so that "when you share it with companies or organizations in a simple way, users can see the main key indicators to follow in their organization", Soler added.

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