The presentation of innovation policy in this volume offers a detailed conceptual framework for understanding and learning about technology innovation policies and programs and their implementation in different countries. Inspired by the experience of both developed and developing countries, the book focuses on the latter’s needs and issues. The publication’s main audience is the policy-making community. It includes not only those who are directly involved with technology, industry, science, and education but also those in charge of finance and economics, and indeed the top government leadership, which plays a crucial role in successful innovation policies.
The Purpose of This Book
The volume describes the main elements of policy measures and offers an overarching strategic framework for implementing a pragmatic innovation
policy with a broad, long-term vision. This book argues that innovation policy should be at the core of government action and a focal point for mobilizing a country’s agents of change. It is up to these public and private sector actors, working together, to determine what will best fit their specific context and leverage their country’s innovation potential.
What Is This Book About?
This book is meant to serve as a guide for policy makers, business people, and people at large in low- and medium-income countries, along with others interested in leveraging innovation to improve the performance and social welfare of their country, region, or organizational unit. Its aim is to help successful innovative firms multiply, to increase the number of sectors that perform well, and to facilitate the process of priority setting in policy making. This volume has three main parts:
- The first presents the rationales and the main principles of innovation policy: why governments should promote innovation, how they should
approach it, and what types of institutions and instruments are effective. - The second part details the basic functions that governments should fulfill to create a climate favorable to innovation: support to innovators, removal of obstacles, strengthening of research and development structures, and adaptation of education and training. In addition, it gives elements for evaluating innovation systems and policies.
- The third part discusses policy implementation issues. It proposes a strategic framework with pragmatic agendas and stepwise approaches adapted to the context of low- and medium-income countries, and it details focused applications of innovation policy: how to promote competitive industries, how to build fertile sites, and how to help poor communities.
This volume provides general principles of action, illustrated by many and diverse examples from various policy contexts. It is ultimately the role of policy makers in a given concrete situation, however, to determine how they can leverage the potential of innovation to address their needs.