The Measurement of Innovation

Abstract

While it is beyond dispute that innovation is the main driver of the continual increase in standards of living (Verspagen, 2005, p. 487), measuring innovation is complicated by the fact that it is a continuous process involving some kind of novelty original and qualitative changes and that it tends to generate positive spillover effects far beyond its industry of origin (Kline and Rosenberg, 1986, p. 279; Carter, 2007, p. 18). As posited in the previous chapter, the high-profile literature on growth avoided the measurement issue by developing complex theoretical models without empirical evidence (Carter, 2007, p. 15). As measurement is a sine qua ??? condition for a wider acceptance of the economic significance of innovation to society and to scientific progress in the field, economists and government organizations have bypassed the problem by developing measures that captured some aspects of innovation in the process (Carter, 2007, p. 15). A large debt is owed to the work of the OECD from the 1960s and economists such as Schmookler (1950, 1954) and Price (1961, 1963), who directed the attention of scholars to the measurement of science and technology (Godin, 2002a, p. 4). Nevertheless, it is essential to underline that the complexity of the notion of innovation, as emphasized in Chapters 1 and 2, makes it particularly challenging to measure.