Policy makers attach great importance to innovation, especially since it is recognized as a key driver to long-term productivity growth. A recent debate is about whether sector-specific measures are needed to stimulate innovation in firms. This paper aims to classify groups of Dutch innovative SMEs with similar innovation patterns.

Our objective is to provide policy makers with a classification that:
- can serve as a basis for future policy interventions,
- makes possible a comparison between manufacturing and service firms,
- enables the comparison of the innovative behaviour of small (< 10 employees) and medium-sized (10-100 employees) enterprises.