A Note about Methodology

Abstract

Using innovation to drive sustainable growth in the chemicals industry About this report Using innovation to drive sustainable growth in the chemicals industry is a companion paper to PwC's comprehensive survey report on innovation, Breakthrough innovation and growth, which explores the impact that innovation has on growth and examines how leading companies are making innovation work for their organisations. Breakthrough innovation and growth explores three key questions: 1 How are companies using innovation to drive growth and what is the return on this investment? 2 How are approaches to innovation changing, particularly in light of a trend towards more disciplined innovation? 3 What are the best practices and critical success factors that deliver tangible business results? To find the answers we drew on insights from interviews with 1,757 C-suite and executive-level respondents who are responsible for overseeing innovation within their company. Interviews were located in more than 25 countries and work in 30 sectors. Our sample included 41 chemicals sector executives from 12 countries. Their responses form the basis for our sector-specific analysis, together with two in-depth " featured interviews ". This report refers to approaches taken by leading innovators. We define the top and bottom innovators using a balanced scorecard approach based on six factors: the importance interviewees place on innovation; their appetite for innovation; the proportion of annual revenue from products or services launched in the last year; the proportion of annual revenue spent on innovation; the proportion of products and services co-developed with external partners; and their project revenue growth over the next five years. For more details on our methodology, please see Breakthrough innovation and growth. 41 executives from companies in the chemical sector from 12 countries