Collecting Literature-based Innovation Output Indicators. The Experience in the Netherlands

The initial phase of the project was closely modelled on the study by The Futures Group (1984). In principle, we took all product innovations reported in the complete 1989 volume of each of the trade journals, and always tried to identify the innovating firm. We trusted that firms have an incentive to make their new products public, and that journal editors make a reasonable selection from the large stream of press releases they receive; i.e. journals editors are assumed to select those new product events that are most interesting to their readers, and to concentrate on cases which they consider ‘innovative’.