The government’s innovation strategy benefits large, established firms such as Booking.com and ASML to the disadvantage of newcomers, according to a new report by macro-economic think tank CPB.

The two biggest sources of innovation funding – the Innovationbox and WBSO – do not dovetail with today’s shift toward digitalisation, researcher Bastiaan Overvest has told the Financieele Dagblad.

‘Young technology firms often work on intuition,’ he said. ‘They do a lot of experimenting and work in cooperation with others. This is completely different to the planned approach of established firms, which work with structured budgets.’

The Innovationbox allows companies to lower their corporation tax bill on profit derived from innovation. ‘It is a subsidy for profitable companies with innovation from the past,’ the CPB says.