Armenian firms reluctant to introduce innovative products and to allocate funds for surveys and business development

Armenian companies are reluctant to introduce innovative products in the production process and they allocate less money for surveys and development. This is proved by the results of the EBRD-WB Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey for 2008-2013, which is based on the interview of 360 Armenian companies.

According to the survey, in 2008 63% of the interviewed enterprises developed new products and introduced new services, but in 2013 only 13% took such measures. The situation is also poor for the enterprises' expenses on surveys and business development: in 2008 23% of the companies allocated funds for surveys and business development versus 3% in 2013.

The survey also reflects on the Caucasus, Europe and Central Asia.  The relevant indices of innovations and new services for the Caucasus are 46% in 2008 and 7% in 2013 while the indices of expenses on surveys and business development are 15% in 2008 and 3% in 2013. In Europe and Central Asia 51% of the firms developed new products and launched new services and 22% spent on surveys and business development in 2008 versus 25% and 9%, respectively, in 2013.

An Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy's private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competition, and performance measures. Since 2002, the World Bank has collected this data from face-to-face interviews with top managers and business owners in over 130,000 companies in 135 economies. Since 2005-06, most data collection efforts have been centralized within the Enterprise Analysis Unit; these surveys are conducted using the Global Methodology. To date, over 94,000 interviews in 126 countries have taken place under the Global Methodology.