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At the heart of the TOP 100 innovation competition is a scientific selection process that participants must undergo. On behalf of Compamedia, the organizer of the comparison, innovation researcher Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke (Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria) and his team examined Pajunk on the basis of more than 100 innovation indicators from five categories:

•     Top Management Promoting Innovation
•     Innovation Climate
•     Innovative Processes and Organization
•     External Orientation/Open Innovation
•     Innovation Success

In principle, the TOP 100 analysis is concerned with the question of whether a company’s innovations are just a product of chance or are systematically planned and thus repeatable in the future. Special weighting is given to the question of whether and how innovations and product improvements succeed in the market (further information on the test criteria can be found at www.top100.de/pruefkriterien).

History

Since 1993, compamedia has been awarding the TOP 100 seal of approval to medium-sized companies for special innovative strength and above-average innovation success. Since 2002, scientific management has been in the hands of Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke. Franke is the founder and director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. With 25 research awards and over 200 publications, he is one of the leading innovation researchers internationally. The mentor of TOP 100 is science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar. Project partners are the Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research and the BVMW association of small and medium-sized enterprises. The magazines manager magazin and impulse accompany the company comparison as media partners. More information and registration at www.top100.de

About the competition:

To ensure that all applicants have the same chances, the seal is awarded in three size categories: up to 50, 51 to 200 and more than 200 employees. A total of 436 SMEs applied, 294 of which were successful and thus belong to this year’s TOP 100 (maximum 100 per size category).

"To what extent is a company focused on innovation? How consistently do its structures follow this goal? With TOP 100, we examine this," explains Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke, the scientific director of TOP 100. "The most innovative SMEs receive the seal. It shows that they are excellently equipped to meet future challenges."

There will be a second cause for celebration on June 24, when the top innovators of the 2022 cohort will gather in Frankfurt am Main for the award ceremony at the German SME Summit to receive congratulations from Ranga Yogeshwar. The science journalist has accompanied the innovation competition as a mentor for eleven years.