Exploring Linkages between Industrial Innovation and Public Policy: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

PERSPECTIVES presents emerging issues and ideas that call for action orrethinking by managers, administrators, and policy makers in organizations It is widely understood now that innovation is critical for development and growth of an economy. World over, governments have worked with a variety of policies to encourage innovative activity. Significant research has gone into the analysis of the complex linkages between public policy and innovation. While this research has generated a lot of interesting insights, it has also identified several gaps in our understanding of these linkages. This article is an attempt to pool together some of the ideas that academic research has highlighted on the linkages between innovation and public policy and identify the current challenges as well as opportunities for meaningfully exploring these linkages further. While it draws a lot on existing studies, the article does not provide a comprehensive or rigorous review of the literature on this subject. It is, at best, a tentative attempt to provide a broad perspective on where we stand vis-à-vis our understanding on the relationship between innovation and public policy. And admittedly, it is one of the many perspectives that a researcher can potentially have on this complex relationship.The article is divided into seven sections. The first section provides a broad overview of the public policy-innovation interface (focusing more on industrial innovation) which the subsequent sections flesh out in some detail. The definitions of innovation and the perspective taken are deliberated upon. This is followed by a discussion of firm activities and choices that are related to innovation. The salient mechanisms through which public policy affects innovation through these choices are spelt out in the next section. This discussion is taken further by reviewing how various specific policies impinge on innovation through different mechanisms. The next section summarizes the issues relating to measurement while innovationpublic policy linkages are analysed. The final section concludes with a brief discussion of potential areas of work in the context of India.

How can China's sustainable development be damaged in consequence of financial misallocation? Analysis from the perspective of regional innovation capability

“…A high financial mismatch index denotes a difference between the capital utilization rate of GEM companies and the average level, indicating that GEM companies may have stronger financing capabilities (Karabarbounis & Macnamara, 2021; Luo et al, 2016). In recent years, “industrial intelligence”‐related policies have encouraged enterprises to carry out technological innovation and invest in smart manufacturing, which has further strengthened this trend (Basant, 2018; Weber & Rohracher, 2012).…”

How Gender Is Recognised in Economic and Education Policy Programmes and Initiatives: An Analysis of Nigerian State Policy Discourse

“…The process of policy is typically seen as having a series of sequential parts, such as problem occurrence, agenda-setting, options for consideration, policy formulation, adoption, implementation, and the process of evaluation. Public policies are often used by governments to solve "wicked problems" that are resistant to change (Hudson et al 2019), or to promote entrepreneurship, social inclusion and social change, ethics, gender equality, economic growth and development Acs and Szerb (2007), as well as prompting of innovations (Hyytinen and Toivanen 2005;Basant 2018). Governments across the world use public policies to provide regulatory frameworks for every citizen, for example, macro-level policies can be used to solve issues socioeconomic issues such as poverty, unemployment, and economic growth (Mckeown 2016).…”