Promoting Innovation in Developing Countries - Research Paper Example

The countries were classified into three groups based on their extent of innovation which was based on the principal component analysis and a measuring tool “INTEG-INNOVA”. The technology creation index (patents granted, human development index, local availability of specialized training and resources, foreign direct investment inflows, average number of citations per S&E articles, secondary gross enrollment rate and science and education journals) contributes a maximum proportion of rate of innovation in developing nations.

Innovation can be defined as the specific tool of entrepreneurs and the means for exploiting the change as an opportunity for a different business or services (Drucker, 1985). It is nothing but a process of coming up with new ideas leading to higher convenience for human existence. In other words, innovation is a gradual process of converting the opportunity into new ideas which will be further employed for the development of new practices leading to technological advancement (Tidd et al., 1997).

The interrelationship between science and technology and innovation is significant and they both positively influence each other. The existing literature suggested that the rate of innovation and contribution from science and technology has not been satisfactory in several developing nations in Asia, the Middle East, South America, and Africa. Though some types of methodologies were used for measuring the extent of innovation in few studies, they lack the clarity in identifying the extent of innovation in developing countries and their relative status with that of developed nations.

Moreover, the role of developing science and technology in enhancing the rate of innovation was not focused specifically on those studies.