The aim of this paper is to analyze the factors that may have impact on the lower level
of service firms’ innovation activities, that can be found from empirical data on innovation
activities (mainly Community Innovation Surveys).
We can distinguish two categories of such factors. The first category, including factors such
as: a much lower attention given to the issue of service firms’ innovation activities, an intangibility
of services and service innovations, and the problem how to measure service innovations, may
contribute to the underestimation of service firms’ innovation activities. On the other hand factors
such as: an ease to imitate service innovations and a poor system of intellectual property rights
protection in service firms, as well as a weak connection of service firms with national innovation
systems may discourage service firms to spend more and become more active in the field
of innovation activities. All these factors are the subject of analysis in the paper. To identify them,
it seems very important, both for further research and for innovation policy, especially in the light
of increasing convergence between manufacturing and service sectors, and the increasing
importance of service innovations in both sectors. Finally, the author analyzes and evaluates the
actions that have been taken recently in order to improve the quality of data on service firms’
innovation activities