A necessary condition for success is that there has been in Finland, at least since the 1980s, a consistent commitment by decision makers, private and public, to foster an innovation-driven economy. Successive governments have invested in a lot research and development.
As a result, the total research and development expenditure in Finland is 3.5% of GDP, highest in Europe after Sweden, and higher than in the United States. The government has contributed a third of the total while private sector has answered for two thirds of the Finnish R&D outlays. An important part of the research has focused on the ICT.