We have a lot of big companies, but almost none of them contributes to opensource for example. Some SMB's do this (adapting the american way?), but no big businesess.
The big 3 problems in Europe are the lack of investors a "Siliconvallish" mind, the lack of a certain amount of money for so called "experimental" technologies and REAL exit-strategies opportunities.
Why I pointed these 3 factors? Having a right investor believing in hi-tech and experimental products, you get the money to start is also someone that bring the right kind of network. With the second factor you can scale, scaling in Europe is VERY expensive (different languages, VAT, cultures, etc...) and the amount of money required is very high. The third factor is required to get the first and the second one, we don't have a working acquisition schema. Investors are too scare to put money on hi-tech in Europe just because exits are REALLY difficult. In the Valley, if your company has a great product, you can end up bought after just 6 months, in Europe this is extremely rare.
That's point of view, I would real like to get some statistics about it and write an article, if you know a good and reliable place where I can find some valid data, they are welcomed.