from selecting and introducing the concept of the five Grand Challenges, is to establish structures and activities to overcome the Innovation Chasm, viz. The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), intellectual property legislation for publically funded R&D, Centres of Competence, and further Research Chairs at universities etc.
The key questions that need to be asked are: • Have we progressed in the last 16 years to achieve a South African National System of Innovation meeting its objectives? • Do we have a better understanding of the models which drive our innovation policies and strategies? • Have we based too much of our thinking on developed country precedents (e.g. OECD), or should we look at developing country models for our innovation approaches and learning?
2. Re-evaluating primary foundations of our National System of Innovation.
2.1 Is there a clear understanding in South Africa of the difference between ‘invention’ and ‘innovation’?
While this may seem a semantic question, it is fundamental to our approach and to how we measure ourselves. While R&D can lead to new ideas and an invention in some cases, this is far removed from these ideas being turned into a viable product or service, a matter which is usually totally underestimated. This distinction needs to be clear because any confusion can influence the interpretation of policies and strategies, and even institutions set up to promote innovation.
A recent World Bank publication Innovation Policy – a Guideline for Developing Countries4
, presents a useful approach to innovation, viz. “innovation should be understood as the dissemination of something new in a given context, not something new in absolute terms. While economically advanced countries naturally work at the technology frontier, developing countries have considerable opportunity for tapping into global knowledge and technology dissemination in a domestic context”.
Thus it is inappropriate to drive the linear model of local R&D as the dominant feedstock of our innovation system. Our proportion of the world’s R&D is small, and with an increasingly connected world, one must expect the dominant technological input to be external to South Africa. What good skilled human capacity in science and technology does give us is an absorption ability to use and adapt new technologies in ways to drive our economy or solve social problems.
Think of how we measure our researchers.
Core to this are a number of publications, student graduates and more recently patents. This, if anything, celebrates and rewards invention, at best, but nowhere do we see measures for patent exploitation, technology diffusion and transfer as key S&T outputs. Unless we truly understand these linkages, we will remain obsessed with the Innovation Chasm.
2.2 Where and how does innovation really happen?
Figure 2: Knowledge / Technology Driven Innovation
Innovation in the economy is inextricably linked to business, and is fundamentally the task of the private sector, strongly influenced by entrepreneurs. If we understand this, then the role of government remains crucial to provide the supportive ecosystem to let those processes happen with minimal hindrance. As we are aware, government plays a vital role in many spheres, but is most important for a future strong knowledge-based economy, education at all levels, and the training of highly skilled postgraduates capable of research and technology deployment. Likewise, new key infrastructure and facilities to support economic growth are often supported by government.
20 Management Today | September 2012 The Innovation Journal
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