Arguably, innovation is a key determinant of the competitive advantage of nations. Little wonder therefore that governments around the world want to be seen promoting innovation. However, based on my experience, government efforts in this area can be divided into two broad categories: Most of the governmental resources (money and time) are used for promoting innovation by non-government actors, and only a small amount is allocated for the innovation programs meant to encourage management innovation within the government itself. The former category represents innovation encouraged ‘by’ the government and the latter innovation generated ‘in’ the government.
Innovation ‘by’ the Government
These efforts primarily involve government giving financial and non-financial incentives to promote cutting edge breakthroughs in science and technology. Whether it is the Cancer Moon Shot funding for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) or the moon shot technologies NASA regularly funds to make science fiction a reality. Every country has some variation of these programs. The outcome of these innovation initiatives by the government predictably depends essentially on the effectiveness of government machinery – how well governments identify, design, fund and monitor these programs…Read more
Author: Professor Prajapati Trivedi, Senior Fellow (Governance) and Adjunct Professor of Public Policy, ISB
Source: This article is extracted from PA Times dated September 08, 2017.