The Cultural Innovation Sub-system
Improving the effectiveness of National Innovation System (NIS) initiatives in developing nations
The Cultural and Creative Industries can be used as critical ingredients of National Innovation Systems (termed the Cultural Innovation Sub-system), especially in developing nations.
This post is about a paper I’ve worked on a while back (originally written in 2015, updated in 2016) but haven’t had enough time to finish. Posting it on the blog is (I guess) as good as any academic journal, considering the extra editing and submission inefficiencies that I don’t have energy for.
The idea – simplified – is that Innovation as an economic and productive activity might be supported better if we look beyond the traditional focus on S&T/ R&D (Science & Technology / Research & Development) spending. This is especially true for different developing nations, particularly because many R&D measures and milestones are the results of the compounding of innovative and industrial activity over prolonged periods of time.
Spending on R&D without the proper infrastructure or ‘deep institutions’ to support it might actually be a low-productivity investment. Better results (what does better mean) can be achieved by looking elsewhere. Things aren’t clear-cut, but countries and policy makers need to widen the set of tools they use and experiment with support to different elements in the value-creation toolbox.
The Idea was presented in the Qatar Annual Research Conference in Doha in 2016 (Qatar ARC’16), and here are a couple of images from the Paper & Poster to illustrate the idea :
This is the paper’s Abstract:
Abstract:
This paper deals with the progress of the concept of the National Innovation System, from a perspective of developing countries, keeping in mind the different aspects of entrepreneurship based on the contributions of Schumpeterian economics.
It examines three possible focus areas for NISs, including technological (The Research & Development / Science & Technology approach to innovation), non-technological (Innovation methods other than product innovation), and Cultural/Creative Industries.
We argue that in the context of some developing countries with inadequate R&D infrastructures and economic development, the Cultural-Creative industries perspective can be more effective in strengthening innovation. We present three lenses that can help shed the light on the contribution of cultural and creative industries to innovation in these contexts.
This paper makes a number of propositions, related to the effectiveness of R&D spending aiming to improve innovation in developing countries, and comparing the impact of supporting innovation through cultural industries versus R&D in the same context. We then propose certain expected areas where investments in cultural industries can strengthen innovation.
Paper
The Paper Can be Downloaded here:
Feel free to download/share/reference.