For the first time a company from the Chinese mainland has joined the ranks of Top 100 Global Innovators compiled by Thomson Reuters information services, which unveiled its latest list in a report on Nov 6.

The report said that the appearance of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd on the list is testament to the effect government policies are having on innovation.

Chinese innovation is "predominantly domestically based, and fueled by government initiatives to harness the creativity of Chinese enterprises and set the economy on a knowledge footing rather than a manufacturing-based one", the report said.

It also noted that a company from the Chinese mainland has been "long anticipated (on the list), given ongoing innovation incentive programs designed to transform it from a manufacturing to a knowledge economy".

"The term innovation has become such an overused buzzword that it is easy to lose sight of what real innovation looks like," said Basil Moftah, president of Thomson Reuters IP & Science.

"By focusing exclusively on quantitative analysis of global businesses' IP portfolios, we are able to identify not only what companies are inventing the most, but also how aggressively they are protecting those inventions.

"This list of 100 companies represents the absolute vanguard of innovation - the organizations that are driving new breakthroughs, creating new jobs and igniting the global economy."

The top 100 innovators "recognize that great ideas are only half of the strategic equation", the report noted. "The other essential component is the protection of those ideas with intellectual property rights so they can be commercialized and leveraged around the world, and therefore reach their full potential."

This year Asia is home to the largest share of the top 100 innovators for the first time, with 46 on the list. Of them, 39 are based in Japan, four in South Korea and two in Taiwan.

North America follows with 36 entries, down from 46 last year. The United States has 35 places and the other is from Canada.

In Europe, France takes the lead with seven representatives, followed by Switzerland with five, Germany with four and the Netherlands and Sweden with one each.

The semiconductor and electronic components industry continues to be the most innovative industry, the report found, although with 21 representative companies this year, the sector is down from 23 last year.

Computer hardware ranks as the second-largest industry yet again, growing from 11 companies on the list last year to 13 this year.

The pharmaceutical sector continues to surge, increasing from only one company in 2012 to three last year and four this year.

Absent from this year's list are representatives from the petroleum sector, which included Chevron and Exxon Mobil last year. But the report noted that this does not mean the companies are not innovating, but rather others outpaced them in R&D intensity.

The 100 listed entities in the study generated total revenue of $3.69 trillion in 2013 and spent a combined $208 billion on R&D, increasing by 17 percent over the previous year.

The report cited French newspaper Le Monde saying that France "has not significantly increased its public investment in research despite the reforms that have been implemented over the last 10 years".

By comparison, China tripled its investment in R&D over the same decade.

Thomson Reuters started the annual list in 2011. The 2014 Top 100 Global Innovator methodology is based on four principle criteria: overall patent volume, patent grant success rates, global reach of the portfolio and patent influence as evidenced by citations.

The fact that Shenzhen-based Huawei, one of the top patent applicants in the world, only made the list just this year reflects the balance in the methodology - it is not just the volume of patents that matters, the report said.

zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is the first company from the Chinese mainland to hit the Top 100 Global Innovators list. Zhen Huai / for China Daily