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Innovation and economic development

Fagerberg, Jan LU ; Srholec, Martin LU and Verspagen, Bart (2010) In Handbook of the Economics of Innovation 2(1). p.833-872
Abstract

Innovation is often seen as carried out by highly educated labor in R&D intensive companies with strong ties to leading centers of excellence in the scientific world. Seen from this angle innovation is a typical "first world" activity. There is, however, another way to look at innovation that goes significantly beyond this high-tech picture. In this broader perspective, innovation-the attempt to try out new or improved products, processes, or ways to do things-is an aspect of most if not all economic activities. In this sense, Section 1 puts forward the idea that innovation may be as relevant in the developing part of the world as elsewhere. Section 2 discusses the existing theoretical and empirical literature on the subject. An... (More)

Innovation is often seen as carried out by highly educated labor in R&D intensive companies with strong ties to leading centers of excellence in the scientific world. Seen from this angle innovation is a typical "first world" activity. There is, however, another way to look at innovation that goes significantly beyond this high-tech picture. In this broader perspective, innovation-the attempt to try out new or improved products, processes, or ways to do things-is an aspect of most if not all economic activities. In this sense, Section 1 puts forward the idea that innovation may be as relevant in the developing part of the world as elsewhere. Section 2 discusses the existing theoretical and empirical literature on the subject. An important conclusion is that to be able to exploit technology to their own advantage, developing countries need to develop the necessary capabilities for doing so. But what are these capabilities and how can they be measured? Section 3 surveys attempts to identify and measure capabilities at the national level. However, the development of such capabilities, it is argued, depends in important ways on what firms do. Section 4, therefore, focuses on recent attempts to survey innovation activity in firms in developing countries and what can be learnt from that. Section 5 discusses the role of domestic versus foreign sources in fostering innovation in the developing part of the world. The final section summarizes the main lessons. copy; 2010 Elsevier B.V.

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author
; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Development, Innovation, Innovation surveys, Measurement, Openness
in
Handbook of the Economics of Innovation
volume
2
issue
1
pages
40 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:77955281808
ISSN
2210-8807
DOI
10.1016/S0169-7218(10)02004-6
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
642d612c-95e2-430c-b34a-58be90df9cd2
date added to LUP
2016-05-18 13:18:46
date last changed
2022-03-23 23:15:23
@article{642d612c-95e2-430c-b34a-58be90df9cd2,
  abstract     = {{<p>Innovation is often seen as carried out by highly educated labor in R&amp;D intensive companies with strong ties to leading centers of excellence in the scientific world. Seen from this angle innovation is a typical "first world" activity. There is, however, another way to look at innovation that goes significantly beyond this high-tech picture. In this broader perspective, innovation-the attempt to try out new or improved products, processes, or ways to do things-is an aspect of most if not all economic activities. In this sense, Section 1 puts forward the idea that innovation may be as relevant in the developing part of the world as elsewhere. Section 2 discusses the existing theoretical and empirical literature on the subject. An important conclusion is that to be able to exploit technology to their own advantage, developing countries need to develop the necessary capabilities for doing so. But what are these capabilities and how can they be measured? Section 3 surveys attempts to identify and measure capabilities at the national level. However, the development of such capabilities, it is argued, depends in important ways on what firms do. Section 4, therefore, focuses on recent attempts to survey innovation activity in firms in developing countries and what can be learnt from that. Section 5 discusses the role of domestic versus foreign sources in fostering innovation in the developing part of the world. The final section summarizes the main lessons. copy; 2010 Elsevier B.V.</p>}},
  author       = {{Fagerberg, Jan and Srholec, Martin and Verspagen, Bart}},
  issn         = {{2210-8807}},
  keywords     = {{Development; Innovation; Innovation surveys; Measurement; Openness}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{833--872}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Handbook of the Economics of Innovation}},
  title        = {{Innovation and economic development}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0169-7218(10)02004-6}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/S0169-7218(10)02004-6}},
  volume       = {{2}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}