evidence of decline since 2008, and is incongruous sophistication.
to its levels of business
3) The levels of higher education and training quality have shown dramatic decline since 2008, thus impacting the quantity and (perhaps) the quality of innovation that could be expected from the country.
Similarly, in a BRICS context South Africa is not necessarily considered to be in innovation leader (figure 4, below).More specific to South Africa’s human capital since 2009, the following trends are observable2
:
1) South Africa’s research and development quality moved from the 121st
place in the world
to one of the Top 60 in the world; 2) Despite the improvement in R&D output, higher education quality and tertiary education quality declined rapidly, thus putting pressure on the quality of the country’s human capital (figure 5, next page).
This paper will assume that innovation is the product of human thinking.
It will also assume that a rise in the quantity or quality of innovation 120
is in direct correlation to the quality of an economy’s human capital. Said human capital’s quality is influenced by the quality of education (primary, higher, and tertiary) within a country. The question
is therefore whether there is
sufficient stimulation in South Africa to generate higher levels of innovative output. Theoretically, the so-called Innovation Gap could be closed by the rise of entrepreneurial universities.
The Entrepreneurial University The term ‘Entrepreneurial University’ refers to universities’ actions to commercialise their own Intellectual Property. Entrepreneurial universities originated in the United Stated and in Europe – each location having different reasons for the creation of entrepreneurial universities:
1) In the 19th century, American universities
had to turn to non-public funds due to lack of funding from State and Federal Government sources;
2) On the other hand, European universities turned to non-public funds in an attempt to close the innovation gap between Europe and the United States3
. More recently, the
100
80 60
Brazil Russia India China South Africa
40
20
0 Business Sophistication Input Index
Overall Innovation Index
Higher Education and Training
Scientific Output Output Index Figure 4: South Africa’s Innovation Status in BRICS 94 Management Today | September 2012 The Innovation Journal Human Capital
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