Measuring Innovation
A New Perspective
Measuring Innovation: A New Perspective presents new measures and new ways of looking
at traditional indicators. It builds on 50 years of indicator development by OECD and
goes beyond R&D to describe the broader context in which innovation occurs. It includes
some experimental indicators that provide insight into new areas of policy interest.
It highlights measurement gaps and proposes directions for advancing the measurement
agenda.
This publication begins by describing innovation today. It looks at what is driving
innovation in firms, and how the scientific and research landscape is being reconfigured
by convergence, interdisciplinarity and the new geography of innovation hot spots.
It presents broader measures of innovation, for example using new indicators of investment
in intangible assets and trademarks.
Human capital is the basic input of innovation, and a series of indicators looks at
how well education systems are contributing to the knowledge and research bases. Further
series examine how firms transform skills and knowledge, and shed light on the different
roles of public and private investment in fostering innovation and reaping its rewards,
with concrete examples from major global challenges such as health and climate change.
Measuring Innovation is a major step towards evidence-based innovation policy making.
It complements traditional “positioning”-type indicators with ones that show how innovation
is, or could be, linked to policy. It also recognises that much more remains to be
done, and points to the measurement challenges statisticians, researchers and policy
makers alike need to address.
Published on May 25, 2010Also available in: Spanish, French