Title page
Contents
ABSTRACT 2
1. INTRODUCTION 3
2. MOTIVATION AND LITERATURE REVIEW 5
2.1. Using the complexity approach to design Smart specialization strategies 8
3. IDENTIFYING INNOVATION CAPABILITIES 10
3.1. Innovation capability related data 10
3.2. Measuring relative innovation capabilities 14
3.3. Measuring absolute innovation capabilities 17
3.4. Innovative capabilities 21
4. EVALUATING INNOVATION CAPABILITIES 25
4.1. The complexity of innovation capabilities 27
4.2. Innovation complexity 31
5. LEVERAGING INNOVATION CAPABILITIES 37
5.1. Innovation capability space and the principle of relatedness 37
5.2. Mapping opportunities for innovation policy 42
5.3. Tapping on innovative potential 44
6. CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH 48
6.1. Limitations 49
6.2. Further research 50
REFERENCES 51
ANNEXES 55
Table 1. Innovation outputs data sample 12
Table 2. Top 8 contributors per dimension, 2016-2020 14
Table 3. R2 of regressing Complexity over Ubiquity by period and dimension 30
Table 4. Complexity ranks by domains 31
Table 5. Regressing GDP per capita over Complexity by period 33
Table 6. Testing the Principle of Relatedness in innovation capability relatedness 41
Figure 1. Innovative outputs are highly concentrated for all dimensions 13
Figure 2. Relative capabilities distribution 16
Figure 3. Distribution of RCA, 2001-2020 17
Figure 4. Domain distribution of innovative outputs, 2016-2020 18
Figure 5. Average "effective" number of countries leading per domain, 2017-2020 19
Figure 6. Threshold distribution for absolute capabilities, 2000-2020 20
Figure 7. Absolute capability distribution, 2000-2020 21
Figure 8. Absolute and relative capability specialization by income groups 22
Figure 9. Relative, absolute and combined capabilities 23
Figure 10. Capabilities matrix: countries x capabilities 24
Figure 11. Countries' diversity and average ubiquity 26
Figure 12. Capabilities' ubiquity and average diversity 27
Figure 13. Field complexity rank by main domains 28
Figure 14. Field Complexity across Dimensions 29
Figure 15. How innovation complexity correlates with GDP per capita? 32
Figure 16. China's climbing the Innovation Complexity Ranking 34
Figure 17. Country innovation space 35
Figure 18. Innovation capability space 38
Figure 19. Unit Spaces for selected countries and periods 39
Figure 20. Singapore's innovation capabilities and opportunities, 2001-2004 and 2017-2020 43
Figure 21. Technological innovation potential, Canada and Colombia 46