Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Fig. 1-20: Dimensions of the Global Competitiveness Report: Austria’s position compared to the EU 28 Member 
State average
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Institutions
Infrastructure
ICT adoption
Macroeconomic stability
Health
Skills
Product market
Labour market
Financial system
Market size
Business dynamism 
Innovation capability
AUT
Ø EU-28
Source: World Economic Forum (WEF) (2019).

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1. Current Trends
47
tion as the ability to generate new content and to 
translate it into products, processes and services 
which can compete on the market. The indicator 
takes account of existing knowledge and human cap-
ital as well as the ability to consolidate various types 
of knowledge. The iit Innovation Capability Indicator 
comprises the following four areas or “pillars”:
•
human capital
: employees’ continuing education 
and training as well as life-long learning;
•
complexity capital
: the diversity of useful knowl-
edge which makes it possible to produce complex 
products;
•
structural capital
: the ability to consolidate 
knowledge within a firm;
•
relationship capital
: the ability to consolidate 
knowledge beyond organisational borders.
The assessments are based on data from the OECD, 
the European Innovation Scoreboard, the Atlas of 
Economic Complexity and the Global Competitive-
ness Report by the WEF. As in the Austrian Research 
and Technology Report 2019, indicators that also ref-
erence non-European countries are used so that 
comparative statements about Austria’s capability to 
innovate can be made at a global level. The section 
below explains the individual pillars that make up the 
iit Innovation Capability Indicator, describes the indi-
cators behind the various assessments and presents 
the results.