Can we map innovation capabilities?

Federico Moscatelli, Christian Chacua, Shreyas Gadgin Matha, Matte Hartog, Eduardo Hernandez Rodriguez, Julio Raffo and Muhammed A. Yildirim

No 81, WIPO Economic Research Working Papers from World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division

Abstract: Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of industrial policies globally. Through various industrial policy instruments, governments make critical scientific and technological choices that shape innovation paths and resource allocations. Our paper explores innovation capabilities as essential drivers of competitive outcomes, spanning science, technology, and production domains. Based on the economic complexity literature, we propose a methodological framework to measure the innovation capabilities empirically, leveraging data on scientific publications, patents, and trade. Our findings highlight the multidimensional nature of innovation capabilities and underscore the importance of understanding both the specialization and quality of these capabilities. Our results are in line with the complexity literature, as we also find: (i) positive correlations between the innovation complexity and economic growth; and, (ii) the predictive power of existing innovation capabilities for fostering new ones. Based on these findings, we propose novel indicators informing innovation policymaking on the innovation potential across science, technology, and production fields of an ecosystem. We suggest that innovation policymaking needs to be informed by deeper insights into innovation capabilities that are crucial for long-term growth and competitiveness improvement.

Keywords: Innovation capabilities; Complexity metrics; Innovation ecosystems; Science and technology policy; Industrial policy; Economic development; Smart specialization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O11 O14 O25 O30 O31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-gro, nep-ino, nep-sbm and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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