Hanken's Finnish Innovation Index listed the most innovative companies of the year in Finland
The Finnish Innovation Index (FII) measures company innovativeness from a consumer perspective among customers who have purchased or used the products of the included companies during the last six months.
Innovativeness is measured in two ways: commercial innovation entails that consumers perceive the company as a game changer and creative pioneer in its field, and social innovation refers to the extent to which companies through innovations benefit society and the environment.
The most innovative companies according to the consumers in Finland in 2024 are: Beyond Meat, MeEat, Oatly, Ikea, Marimekko, OddlyGood, Alpro, Uber, Fazer, Fiskars, Lumene, Sokos hotels and Neste.
This year, the FII introduced a new dimension: responsibility and fairness of marketing practices. The addition of the responsible and fair marketing practices dimension aligns with the increasing demands and upcoming EU regulations on living up to marketing practices and sustainability claims.
“When we added this we saw new companies that consumers see as being fair and responsible. Fair marketing practices include fair sales methods, transparency in communication, fairness of pricing, and a possibility to file complaints," says Professor Kristina Heinonen, initiator and project leader for FII at Hanken.
The plant-based food and beverage manufacturing industry sets a prime example, with its companies leading the ranking.
“We are in the spotlight, which gives us the advantage to do good in an area that has the awareness from the consumer’s perspective. So it’s timing, but I like to believe that what we do is really innovative and we want to rebuild the whole food system. My dream is that our products would be so tasty that people would be willing to pay more for our products than for meat, said Petteri Ruska from MeEat, which performed well in the new FII category.
The FII 2024 ranking is based on more than 23 000 responses from over 5800 consumers who evaluated the innovativeness and attractiveness of 77 companies and organisations in 17 categories.
The results of the survey was presented in more detail at the seminar Hanken Insights – Innovation for a Sustainable World. A select number of the best-performing companies discussed the key success factors of firm innovativeness. There is also a similar index for Norway, Sweden, Spain and the United States, among others.
Panelists of the event include:
Alain Mavon, Vice President R&D and Sustainability, Lumene Group
Johanna Uimonen, Communications Manager, Scandic Hotels Finland
Petteri Ruska, CEO, MeEat Food Tech Oy
Kristina Heinonen, Professor of Marketing, Hanken School of Economics, Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management, CERS
The discussion was moderated by Marc Hinnenberg, CEO of Hanken & SSE Executive Education.