Innovation assessment of a Portuguese railway branch of a foreign multinational - a case study

Paper developed for the unit “Innovation Economics and Management” of the PhD programme in Technology Assessment at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa in 2009-10 under the supervision of Prof. Maria Luísa Ferreira

This paper analyses the application of the Innovation Scoring model and its results to the railway business branch of a foreign multinational. Results confirm some enrolment in non-core Research & Development connected to the commercial activity of selling trains. Two main determinants were found to support this enrolment: the impact of a new Portuguese law imposing R&D investment for public contracts; and a certain degree of openness in the multinational’s innovation strategy based on predictable growth for the Portuguese market. The study also confirms the usefulness of the Innovation Scoring model, leaving some suggestions for improvement such as tailoring for multi-decision centres, implementing it through a third party, reducing the number of questions and introduction of a product evaluation methodology.