Innovative Countries -- Global Innovation Index

 

This is a great summary of innovation by country from Visual Capitalist. See the Global Innovation Index (GII) map here:https://www.visualcapitalist.com/most-innovative-countries-2022/

We, at Strategic Business Planning Company, www.SBP.com, are always interesting in all aspects of innovation. Sometimes we hear from a layperson or an executive that the most innovative country in the work is ...  

Israel and Ireland were mentioned in recent years.  One executive said that "all innovation comes from Israel". All right, admittedly, Israel is a great source of innovation and invention, but it is a very small country (population, GDP). In absolute terms, Israel is not even close, but in relative terms (adjusted for size of country), Israel is a very respectable #16 in the world (GII score of 50.2).

So, a quick search came up with this great source at Visual Capitalist shows that the top 6 countries are: Switzerland, USA, Sweden, and the UK all with innovation scores above 60. The rest of the top 10 had innovation scores over 56.

Rank	Country / Region	Score
1	Switzerland	64.6
2	U.S.	61.8
3	Sweden	61.6
4	United Kingdom	59.7
5	Netherlands	58.0
6	South Korea	57.8
7	Singapore	57.3
8	Germany	57.2
9	Finland	56.9
10	Denmark	55.9

Here is the summary of how the Global Innovation Index is developed/designed. (quote)

Innovation is inherently challenging to quantify, but the Global Innovation Index is a longstanding attempt to do just that. The framework used for the index was designed to create a more complete analysis, comprising of 81 indicators across seven categories to calculate a country’s score:

7 Categories	Example Indicators
🧳 Business Sophistication	Business R&D spend, net inflows of foreign direct investment
📈 Market Sophistication	Size of economy’s GDP, intensity of local market competition
🛣️ Infrastructure	Road, hospital, school construction, energy efficiency
👩‍🏫 Human Capital & Research	Government funding per pupil, quality of scientific and research institutions
🏛️ Institutions	Political stability and safety, ease of starting a business
💡 Creative Outputs	Most valuable brands, industrial design applications, trademark applications
👨‍💻 Knowledge and Technology Outputs	Patent applications, increase in labor productivity, spending on software

As the above table shows, the framework aims to identify indicators that foster an innovative environment and breakthrough technologies.

Other Countries

 The article talks about regions, like North America (namely, US and Canada) and the EU with some 15 very innovative countries. 

China came in 11th (GII score of 55.3). China sucks up technology from around the world -- legally, unethically, and illegally. And then China shamelessly deploys and commercializes technology. In terms of patents, China is by far the busiest patent office in the world. World Intellectual Property Organization shows that China continues to be the busiest patent office in the world. The patent protection in china is not because it is the 2nd largest economy in the world behind the USA, it is because patent protection in the other big economies is also protected by reducing the knock-offs and piracy from China (India and other countries).

South Africa is generally low on the GII innovation index with South Africa rated 61st country (GII of 29), then Morocco and Tunisia. The nexus of innovation (regions or pockets of innovation) seems to explain much of the GII innovation.

Summary

Innovation is complex with may areas that enable economic growth and development. A well rounded environment for invention and innovation is best. There are several ways to get to an economic environment that is innovation enabled and invention friendly.