Track: Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Abstract

In a context of globalization and market openness, innovation has become a decisive engine to build a competitive advantage for economies on a national scale. Innovation is today essential for both entrepreneurs and policy-makers. In many countries, governments have used a set of incentives and processes, commonly referred to as National Innovation Systems (NIS), to boost innovation. However, these NISs require permanent monitoring and evaluation of existing potentials, reached results, as well as important weaknesses. To this end, several indicators and have been used for comparative evaluations of innovation efforts and performances. The aim of this study is to contribute to the understanding of factors influencing the innovation performance of a country. Hence, a framework is proposed for analyzing innovation in a country and predicting its ability to innovate. A case study is also presented based on the 2015 data of the Global Innovation Index, defining the most important drivers (i.e., determinants) of the National Innovative Capacity.