Its annual ‘Ones to Watch’ report is an index of 25 companies that reflect long-term behavioural trends that are already shaping the major economies and will continue to over the next decade.

Six major trends have been identified in the report, and while companies of all shapes and sizes have been highlighted, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) predominate as the leaders of innovation.

John Owrid, CEO of Index B and co-author of the report, comments, ‘The business world is being reshaped by long-term trends, and the companies that reflect these trends are increasingly important for economic growth – and worth watching.’

The report’s co-author Roger Trapp adds, ‘Overall smaller companies are now forerunners of behavioural change, and it is good news that British companies feature heavily in the report – the UK is definitely at the head of the curve in terms of having a good share of innovative smaller businesses that will shape the future.’

The first of the major trends identified is the internet, and companies highlighted include file accessing site Dropbox and organisation software Evernote.

The next two major trends are mobile commerce and sustainability with customized mobile payments firm Proxama and plastic bottles experts Closed Loop Recycling making the list.

These trends are followed by new capitalism, with crowdfunding site CrowdCube singled out, and one-man empires, with firm Basekit, which has revolutionized the cost and time of web creation, included as one to watch.

The final trend is community models, and firms that exemplify this trend include collaborative platform Kaggle and music events social network Songkick.