The determinants of innovation performance: an income-based cross-country comparative analysis using the Global Innovation Index (GII)

Abstract

Despite the dearth of research on innovation, the key determinants of innovation performance still need to be clarified. Besides, a comparative analysis of the determinants of innovation performance across countries at different income levels has yet to be found. This study, therefore, aims to bridge this research gap by considering the innovation performance of 63 countries. Participating countries were purposefully selected from the Global Innovation Index (GII) dataset. Multistage and multimodal analyses were conducted, including multiple linear regressions, hierarchical regression, and ANOVA, to examine the variation in innovation performance and pinpoint critical determinants in each category of countries. The result reveals that human capital, research, infrastructure, and business sophistication are the key pillars determining countries’ innovation performance. In a variable-level analysis, innovation linkage and knowledge absorption (both of business sophistication), research and development (R&D), and infrastructure (inculcating both physical and digital) are the best predicting variables. The shortage of human capital to promote R&D is the biggest bottleneck hampering innovation in the lower-middle-income category. Also, both human capital for R&D activities and innovation linkage equally affect the upper-middle-income, and the latter one, innovation linkage, remains the main challenge even for the high-income category. The study implies that innovation performance predicts a country’s economic growth. The level of innovation performance and the determinants of innovation vary per the countries’ income levels. Accordingly, countries and firms in various income categories should prioritize tackling their respective bottlenecks hindering innovation performance in their policy directions. The study claims to have extended the horizon of understanding determinants of innovation across countries and revealed the most crucial factors in each category of countries. Further empirical comparative research can be done by incorporating an informal institution, national culture, as an additional determinant and specifying sectors across income categories.

Factors Influencing Innovation Performance in Portugal: A Cross-Country Comparative Analysis Based on the Global Innovation Index and on the European Innovation Scoreboard

“…Innovation has helped to improve productivity, which has increased economic output, which in turn has improved the socio-economic status of populations. In recent decades, there has been unprecedented investment in innovation by both the public and private sectors globally [5], and support for Sustainability 2023, 15, 10446 2 of 17 innovation remains the main challenge for policymakers and managers, while the concept of innovation itself is evolving from a business perspective to a regional, national, or global perspective, increasingly constituting itself as a research area [6][7][8][9].…”

“…This article aims to determine the factors influencing innovation performance in Portugal, by comparing its performance with that of counterpart EU countries such as Ireland, Belgium, and the Czech Republic. The article addresses the evolution of the innovation indicators in the last four years based on two of the most widely used indexes: the GII [6,8] and the EIS [6,7], setting out the areas where the main changes occurred in the countries under comparison and highlighting the aspects in which Portugal stands out for its superior or poor performance. The identification of the factors at the basis of the development of the countries that, a decade ago, were in line with Portugal and which are currently ahead in several indicators, may be a short-term benchmark and can provide clues for the definition of policies to improve innovation in Portugal.…”

Anti-progressive conditions for the functioning of enterprises; innovation in the opinion of producers of technical means of agricultural transport – the context of its implementation and its barriers

“…In the submitted work, they used a three-stage procedure of research implied by the work purpose (Figure 2). The research technique that was chosen to collect the primary data was the reconstruction and interpretation of the literature on the given subject (among others: Ayinaddis, Taye, Yirsaw, 2023;Bate, Wachira, Danka, 2023;Byvshev, Parfenteva, Panteleeva, et al, 2023;Heller, Amir, Waxman, et al, 2023;Lubián, 2023; Mitcheltree, 2023;Spännäri, Juntunen, Pessi, Stahle, 2023). The review of literature allowed for a formalized and objective synthesis of the hitherto scientific achievements and evaluation of the research conducted so far (Columb, Lalkhen, 1995, pp.…”

Human capital and financial performance of Islamic banks: a meta-analysis

“…, 2022). It also correlates with innovation performance (Bate et al. , 2023), value creation (Brown et al.…”

“…Human capital includes knowledge, experience, education and skills of employees, which are transferred with them when leaving an organization, while investing in human capital can improve the quality of work and contribute to economic growth (Rehman et al, 2022). It also correlates with innovation performance (Bate et al, 2023), value creation (Brown et al, 2023), knowledge creation (Rhee et al, 2023), marketing innovation (Kaiser et al, 2023), customer satisfaction (Fernandes et al, 2023), customer integration (Xi et al, 2023), export product quality (Zhang and Duan, 2023) and enhances the business competitiveness (Kongrode et al, 2023).…”