In search of an effective innovation policy

INSTEAD (Mahroum) - ...the average policymaker finds herself lost in the maze of innovation studies jargon. Academics and researchers of innovation have produced a new genre of literature that is difficult to use in order to generate effective (policy) solutions. In fact, little in the way of standard public policy analysis finds its way into innovation policy work and hence too often the political, social, and economic feasibility of many recommendations is not taken into consideration.

One reason for this is the tendency of many innovation policy analysts to focus primarily on the big picture, such as the industrial structures of nations, their business cultures, education systems, and legislative frameworks. As a result, governments are often offered recommendations requiring some major socio-economic changes, ranging from calls to overhaul existing educational systems to calls for centralising (or decentralising) governance structures. The malleability, risks and costs of such recommendations often go unnoticed, and the policymaker becomes either sceptical or dismissive despite the validity of many such calls.

Governments are primarily interested in interventions that can make a system work better, rather than those aimed at overhauling a system altogether. For the majority, socio-economic re-engineering policies are too big to undertake and with no guarantees that they would deliver in practice what they promise in theory...

How may governments then create favourable conditions for innovation? To answer this question, many governments in major advanced economies have launched national innovation strategies over the past few years. The summer of 2010 will also witness the launching of the OECD’s own Innovation Strategy. Unfortunately, more often than not, these strategies emerge in the shape of laundary lists of tall orders. The urgent need to prioritise problems and solutions in the face of scarcity and competition for resources often goes unnoticed. Consequently, too often policymakers tend to treat such strategy documents, at best, as wish lists from which to cherry-pick and, at worst, as PR material.

An effective innovation policy is therefore one that should at least involve some of the following...Read More