Both Chinese firms and multinational corporations (MNCs) in China are becoming more innovative, according to Booz & Co.’s “2013 China Innovation Survey.” The survey polled 264 executives at Chinese firms and MNCs in the industrial, automotive, chemicals and energy, computing and telecommunications, consumer goods, finance, health and life sciences, and professional services sectors. When asked to compare their Chinese competitors’ innovation with their own, 40% of respondents at non-Chinese MNCs said Chinese firms were more innovative and 36% said they were equally innovative. Of respondents at Chinese firms, 66% said their firms develop products in China for foreign markets, up from 41% last year, and 88% expect to do so by 2023. Of MNCs, 66% develop products in China for foreign markets, 51% did so last year and 74% plan to do so by 2023. Twenty-seven percent of respondents said that the value of R&D their firms perform in China is equal to the R&D their firms perform globally, and 56% said the R&D their firms perform in China is “higher value added.”

Source: Booz & Co.