“Preliminary data from the National Science Foundation’s 2008 Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS) provide a map of the incidence of innovation by businesses located in the United States. These data are based on respondents to the survey and represent an estimated 1.5 million for-profit companies, publicly or privately held, with 5 or more employees, active in the United States in 2008. The new data indicate that in the period 2006–08 about 22% of the manufacturing companies introduced product innovations (one or more new or significantly improved good or service) and about 22% introduced “…incidence of U.S. innovation varies substantially by industry sector.”process innovations (one or more new or significantly improved method for manufacturing or production; logistics, delivery, or distribution; support activities).[2] In comparison, about 8% of companies in the nonmanufacturing sector were product innovators and 8% were process innovators. Nonetheless, much higher innovation incidences are observed in the manufacturing subsectors of chemicals, computer/electronic products, and electrical equipment/appliances/components, and in some parts of the nonmanufacturing sectors of information and professional/scientific/technical services. Further, the BRDIS data indicate that companies that perform and/or fund R&D have a far higher incidence of innovation than do companies without any R&D activity.”