Report ranks 130 countries on innovation readiness
INSEAD, the leading international business school, announced the findings of its Global Innovation Index (GII), a study which the school has jointly published with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The GII evaluates the progress of innovation readiness in countries, highlighting the obstacles that prevent governments, businesses, and individuals from fully capturing the benefits of innovation. In its second year, the GII ranks countries on several parameters, including technological sophistication, human capacity and infrastructure.
The United States ranked first in the 2008-2009 GII, followed by Germany which maintained its position for a second consecutive year. Sweden advanced significantly by ranking third, compared to its 12th position in 2007. The United Kingdom fell from 3rd to 4th slot and Singapore rose to 5th rank this year from 7th the previous year. South Korea made the most prominent move by securing the 6th rank compared to 19th position last year.
The top 10 countries in the overall ranking include:
- United States
- Germany
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Switzerland
- Denmark
- Japan
- Netherlands
European economies performed particularly well, including the Nordic ones – Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland - which ranked in the top 10. Israel and Qatar from West Asia and the Middle East both found places in the top 25. Other Middle Eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates placed just below this quartile.
While several countries made noteworthy moves to the top of the overall innovation rankings, there were also many that experienced declines in the 2008-2009 report. Both Japan and France fell in the rankings by moving from 4th to 9th and 5th to 19th, respectively. The BRIC countries also saw declines, including India which moved from the 23rd rank to the 41st position this year. China, however, overtook India in the rankings by advancing to the 37th position.
INSEAD professor Soumitra Dutta, the primary author of the study stated, ‘Innovation today has become horizontal. We can no longer afford to look at it through such a narrow scope by examining vertical structures such as R&D laboratories and universities. In the Global Innovation Index, we take a much broader approach to looking at innovation around the world by capturing both micro- and macroeconomic variables.’
Dutta added, ‘Our goal is to provide a benchmarking tool for business leaders and policymakers to identify obstacles to improved innovation and competitiveness and stimulate discussion on strategies to overcome them. In today’s current global economic crisis, it will be critical for leaders to create an enabling environment to support the adoption of innovation and spread the benefits across all sectors of society.’
The GII results have revealed that innovation is correlated with income levels in a country. For example, the innovation levels in the OECD countries are much more than non-OECD countries. There are few countries from Africa that are included in the rankings with only South Africa coming in at the 43rd position.
Over the years, through its own research, INSEAD has examined the many factors enabling national economies to achieve sustained and higher innovation capabilities. The GII’s methodology is based on an advanced framework developed by professor Dutta and INSEAD research associates and is based on the following principles:
- There is a distinction between inputs and outputs while measuring innovation in an economy. Inputs are aspects that enable an economy to stimulate innovation and outputs are the results of innovative activities within the economy.
- There are five input pillars that are included in the GII: Institutions and Policies, Human Capacity, General and ICT Infrastructure, Market Sophistication and Business Sophistication. The input pillars define aspects of the conducive environment required to stimulate innovation within an economy.
- There are three output pillars which provide evidence of the results of innovation within the economy: Knowledge Creation, Competitiveness and Wealth Creation.
The Global Innovation Index 2007, which was the first and most comprehensive assessment of the innovation capabilities of its kind, was released in January 2007.
The data for the GII was collected from reputed international organisations such as the World Economic Forum, the World Bank and the International Telecommunications Union. In particular, a combination of qualitative and
quantitative data was used for the computation of the GII. The qualitative data was obtained from the Executive Opinion Survey, a global CEO survey conducted by the World Economic Forum.
To see additional highlights, country profiles and rankings, please visit: http://centres.insead.edu/elab/
