Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Fig. 1-24: Economic complexity, 2017*
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
DEU
CZ
E
AU
T
FIN
SW
E
HU
N
SV
N
ITA
GBR
SV
K
FR
A
IRL
Ø E
U-2
8
POL
DN
K
BE
L
RO
U
NL
D
ES
T
HRV
LT
U
ES
P
PR
T
LV
A
BG
R
CY
P
GRC
CH
E
US
A
CH
N
CA
N
BR
A
ZAF
AU
S
EU Member States
Reference countries
* Country data not available for the reference years: LUX, MLT.
Source: The Growth Lab at Harvard University (2019). Graphic: iit.

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52
Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey, which is evaluated 
in the Global Competitiveness Report,
54
runs as fol-
lows: “
In your country, to what extent do people col-
laborate and share ideas within a company?”
This question is an accurate reflection of the 
structural capital dimension outlined above, making 
it a suitable alternative to the data from the Europe-
an Working Conditions Survey. The possible answers 
are given a score on a scale from one (“
not at all
“) to 
seven (“
to a great extent
”). The mean values for each 
country are then calculated based on the executives’ 
responses, as illustrated in Fig. 1-25.
The results put Austria sixth in the EU with a score 
of 5.3. First place in the EU goes to Sweden (with 
5.6). Looking at the other reference countries includ-
ed for comparison purposes, it is interesting to note 
that both Switzerland (5.8) and the USA (5.7) score 
54 See World Economic Forum (2019), (2020a).
55 See European Commission (2019b).
even higher. Overall, this indicator suggests that 
Austrian companies are very good places to incubate 
ideas and innovations and that ideas are shared 
more effectively there than in many of the other ref-
erence countries. These results mirror the evaluation 
of the European Condition Working Survey present-
ed in the Austrian Research and Technology Report 
2019.
To shine more light on structural capital, the fol-
lowing section takes a look at an indicator on em-
ployment involving knowledge-intensive activities.
55
This indicator serves as a benchmark for the spread 
of knowledge-intensive work contexts that are con-
ducive to learning and can thus also be interpreted 
as an indication of structural capital. It looks at how 
many people, as a percentage of the total workforce, 
were employed in economic sub-sectors employing