Innovation Surveys as Evidence for Technological Upgrading and Catch-Up Studies

Ch. 6. P. 160–189.

Roud V.

This chapter looks at the contribution to the innovation capability measurement that is made through innovation surveys. The increased availability of data at the firm level provides new and comprehensive indicators on the accumulation of innovation capabilities. Better understanding of long-term dynamics and the heterogeneity of sectoral trajectories of innovation capabilities sets the stage for adaptable and targeted innovation policy and facilitates new insights on the technology upgrading and economic catch-up mechanics. The chapter presents an approach to assessing innovation capabilities at the national and sectoral levels using composite indicators of output-based innovation modes and illustrates the proposed ideas using the data from the Russian innovation survey. The proposed indicators bring empirical evidence to the discussions of path dependence and gradual change in the technological upgrading studies. Identification of the heterogeneity of innovation capabilities at firm and industry level contributes to a more profound understanding of the upgrading dynamics and helps to draw implications for effective policymaking.

Keywords: innovation modes, heterogeneity, firm-level, innovation surveys, technological upgrading, taxonomies, innovation capabilities

Publication based on the results of: An empirical study of the framework conditions for innovation in manufacturing, knowledge intensive business services and creative industries (2021)

In book

The Challenges of Technology and Economic Catch-up in Emerging Economies

Oxford University Press, 2021.