Beyond making waves as a reinvigorated business initiative or industry buzzword, innovation is at the apex of our shifting global business dynamic. The speed of technological evolution guarantees no one market safety, promising only that clinging to old ideas and sheltering ourselves from data will lead to failure. In an effort to better understand the influx of information surrounding business innovation practices, many experts turn to the Global Innovation Index (GII), an annual report that “recognizes the key role of innovation as a driver of economic growth and prosperity and acknowledges the need for a broad horizontal vision of innovation that is applicable to both developed and emerging economies.”
Co-published by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization, the GII is now in its sixth edition. In addition to identifying overarching global themes, it includes:
- Indicators that go beyond traditional measures of innovation, like area-specific R+D data
- A globally ranked and comparable innovation index showcasing myriad criteria with which to splice the data, such as expenditure types and patent applications
- The role of enterprise innovation software in the global economy
- Regional case studies
From the report:
“The GII has evolved into a valuable benchmarking tool to facilitate public-private dialogue, whereby policymakers, business leaders and other stakeholders can evaluate progress on a continual basis…Although the first half of 2013 has seen a pronounced economic uptick, the global recovery is not as strong as anticipated last year. Economic growth in emerging markets and high-income economies is uneven: growth prospects for many low- and middle-income economies continue to be good, but many high-income economies continue to struggle towards recovery.”
Download the full report here.
Want more on innovation? Check out our Innovation Breakdown: 4 Types of and Approaches to Innovating for Business.