K&H: the digital transition of companies is slowing down

For the seventh semester, K&H measures the innovation activity of the domestic medium and large enterprise sector. In the first half of 2024, the K&H innovation index formed from the data of the research remains at the same level as the previous half, unchanged at 29 points. Since the start of the survey, at the beginning of 2021, the innovation index has fluctuated between 31 and 28 points every semester, which indicates that innovation at Hungarian companies has essentially stagnated in the past three years.

Similar to the previous wave of the survey, two-thirds of the companies (65%) introduced innovations, but more companies than before undertook several innovations simultaneously. The proportion of companies engaged in further innovation activities increased somewhat (it increased to 63 percent from the previous 60), but even in this case it is true that companies are simultaneously engaged in more innovation activities than before – the decrease experienced over several waves in the past has now stopped.

On the other hand, the proportion of companies that plan other innovation activities – such as research and development, the purchase of high-tech machines or software, and automation – in the next year fell. While previously every second company (47 percent) planned such an innovation, in the first half of 2024 only a third of companies (35 percent) plan to do so in the next year.