ervices are big business in Europe. There are far more jobs in the service industries than manufacturing, and it is predominantly in services that new jobs are being created. In economic terms as well, the service industries already account for the major share of Europe’s turnover. Achieving substantial growth in Europe’s economy – as demanded by the Lisbon strategy – will require a significant contribution from the service sectors. Traditional views of researchfocused technological innovation are of little relevance to them. But as the Commission has sought to widen the scope of innovation policy to concepts such as organisational and process innovation, it has also emphasised that innovation is not only for manufacturing companies. In our dossier we look at a forthcoming study on innovation in services, and at the direction in which policy should go to address the needs of the service industries.
Progress in reaching the Lisbon target remains slow, but there is growing recognition from many quarters that more action is needed across the board. Earlier this year, an informal meeting of ministers responsible for competitiveness agreed that Europe’s economy requires an environment in which industry can focus on higher-skilled activities (see 'Competition needed for more innovation').
Successful innovation needs good management, but for many small firms, managers have their hands full with day-to-day work. The Entertain project has sought to develop methods to help such companies adopt new innovative methods (see 'Entertaining innovation in small enterprises').
ervices are big business in Europe. There are far more jobs in the service industries than manufacturing, and it is predominantly in services that new jobs are being created. In economic terms as well, the service industries already account for the major share of Europe’s turnover. Achieving substantial growth in Europe’s economy – as demanded by the Lisbon strategy – will require a significant contribution from the service sectors. Traditional views of researchfocused technological innovation are of little relevance to them. But as the Commission has sought to widen the scope of innovation policy to concepts such as organisational and process innovation, it has also emphasised that innovation is not only for manufacturing companies. In our 
