Emerging trends and drivers for knowledge-intensive economy

Abstract Innovation and knowledge-intensive economy are considered crucial for addressing challenges and opportunities currently faced by Europe. The present paper aims to provide inputs for building a long-term vision aiming to promote innovation and knowledge economy for fostering smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. We analyze microdata from the 2016 Innobarometer “EU Business Innovation Trends” (Flash Eurobarometer 433), covering 14,112 companies from 30 countries in order to shed light on main drivers and results of business investments in innovation. We focus our analysis on high-tech industries and knowledge-intensive services. Additionally, expected positive impacts of innovation in knowledge-intensive sectors are explored in terms of job creation, digital economy, environment protection, health, transport, food quantity and quality, development of smart cities, etc. Our results are useful for designing an improved support for the emergence and impact of knowledge-intensive economy.