The Global Innovation Index 2011 - What does it tell us?
While global indices of innovation may lack an ironcladmethodology, this report contains insightful analytical chapters on
regional strengths and weaknesses in innovation efficiency that are
worth reading.
In June INSEAD, a leading international business school, today announced
the findings of The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2011
edition.
Switzerland topped this year’s GII ranking, gaining three spots
from its position in last year’s GII. Sweden and Singapore follow
in the 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively. The United States
ranked 7th overall, followed closely by Canada in 8th place.
Joining INSEAD as Knowledge Partners for the report were
Alcatel-Lucent, Booz & Company, the Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII), and the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO), a specialized agency of the United Nations.
This year’s rankings show that innovation has become a global
phenomenon with six European economies (including Finland 5th,
Denmark 6th, the Netherlands 9th and the United Kingdom 10th), two
Asian (including Hong Kong, SAR, China 4th) and two North American
economies (the United States 7th and Canada 8th) in the Top 10.
The top ten economies in the GII 2011 ranking are:
Switzerland
‘Innovation is critical to driving growth in both developed and
emerging economies, especially during a time when the global
economy is still in a state of recovery,’ said Soumitra Dutta,
Roland Berger Professor of Business and Technology at INSEAD and
editor of the study.
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry stressed that ‘Innovation is
central to economic growth and to the creation of new and better
jobs. It is the key to competitiveness for economies, for
industries and for individual firms.’
He added that ‘innovation and its many benefits do not come
without the investment of time, effort and human and financial
resources,’ noting that this report captures efforts by a large
number of economies to provide an enabling environment that
promotes innovation.
The five Nordic economies-Sweden (2nd), Finland (5th), Denmark
(6th), Iceland (11th), and Norway (18th)-have very strong
performances globally as well as regionally. Within the European
Union (EU), the Netherlands and the UK are in the top 10, followed
by Germany (12th), Ireland (13th), Luxembourg (17th), and Austria
(19th) in the top 20.
Detailed chapters on cities and regions
reveal interesting insights, such as ‘Latin American businesses are
redefining global business by developing new business
models’.
The GII includes 16 economies from the Middle East and North
Africa, of which two-Israel (14th) and Qatar (26th)-are ranked
among the top 30; both high-income economies. Among Sub-Saharan
African economies, Mauritius (53rd overall) achieves the top
regional spot while South Africa (59th) is the runner-up. Ghana
comes next at position 70, and ranked first among economies
classified as low-income, all regions combined.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile comes first (ranked
38th), followed by Costa Rica (45th) and Brazil (47th) among the
top 50.
Of the four economies from South Asia in the GII, India is
ranked 62nd overall, followed by Sri Lanka (82nd), Bangladesh
(97th), and Pakistan (105th). From East Asia and the Pacific,
besides the leading positions of Singapore (3rd) and Hong Kong
(SAR, China, 4th), five more are in the top 30: New Zealand (15th),
the Republic of Korea (16th), Japan (20th), Australia (21st), and
China (29th), the top-ranked emerging economy.
Dr. Naushad Forbes, Chairman of the CII Innovation Council
2011-12 and Director of Forbes Marshall commented: ‘Today the whole
world is talking about innovation in all forms starting from
industry to government to society. After the recent economic
slowdown the focus has shifted clearly towards the developing
regions not only in terms of a booming potential market but also a
hot spot for frugal innovations.’
The Global Innovation Index is
computed as an average of the scores across inputs pillars
(describing the enabling environment for innovation) and output
pillars (measuring actual achievements in
innovation).
Five pillars constitute the Innovation Input Sub-Index:
‘Institutions,’ ‘Human capital and research,’ ‘Infrastructure’,
‘Market sophistication’ and ‘Business sophistication’. The
Innovation Output Sub-Index is composed of two pillars: ‘Scientific
outputs’ and ‘Creative outputs’. The Innovation Efficiency Index,
calculated as the ratio of the two Sub-Indices, examines how
economies leverage their enabling environments to stimulate
innovation results.
The top 10 economies in the Innovation Efficiency Index are Côte
d’Ivoire, Nigeria, China, Pakistan, Moldova, Sweden, Brazil,
Argentina, India, and Bangladesh. Three BRIC economies (Brazil,
India, and China) are in this select list, with the fourth, the
Russian Federation, coming in at 52nd place.
By region, the best performers are Côte d’Ivoire (1st), China
(3rd), Pakistan (4th), Moldova (5th), Brazil (7th), Jordan (16th),
and the US (26th). By income group, in descending order of income,
leaders are Sweden (6th), Brazil (7th), Côte d’Ivoire (1st), and
Bangladesh (10th).
‘The ability to innovate is the great
equalizer in the global economy. In the industrial era, nations
relied on their natural resources to compete. Today, any country
can advance with carefully focused investments in talent and
R&D. The performance of some emerging economies in this year’s
GII shows what nations can accomplish with a focus on building 21st
century economies.’ Shumeet Banerji, Chief Executive Officer of
Booz & Company
The Report includes analytical chapters to expose recent global
innovation trends that can hardly be captured by traditional
metrics. These were provided by Knowledge Partners, all leading
actors in the area of innovation.
Topics include: affordable innovations in India; insights on
innovation in Latin America; the smart and sustainable cities; the
global footprint of R&D, and metrics on creativity and
copyright-related industries.
target=”_blank”>The Executive Summary is available
here: To download the full report or see additional
highlights, economy profiles and rankings, please visit:
Editor’s Note Critics have correctly
pointed out that the Index lacks an ironclad methodology and the
connections between creativity and economic, social and cultural
innovations are not well defined nor easily understood. As well,
the interactive Indice generating table on the supporting website
is difficult to work with.
The strength of the report is the perspective is offers
‘outside the box’ revealling important trends in emerging parts of
the world - the Middle East, Sub-Sahara Africa, Southeast Asia -
that investors and innovators might otherwise overlook.
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