Innovation scoreboards: indicators and policy use

Abstract

Innovation scoreboards consist of a collection of national or regional indicators of relevance to innovation. Depending on data availability, an innovation scoreboard can include indicators of innovation inputs such as the supply of scientists and engineers, activities such as R&D collaboration among firms, intermediate innovation outputs such as patents, or market outputs such as the sales of innovative products. Some scoreboards focus entirely on innovation, while other scoreboards include innovation indicators as a major subset of a broader theme, such as economic competitiveness. The number of scoreboards that cover innovation has increased since the mid 1990s in response to policy and media interest. Examples include DG Enterprise's European Innovation Scoreboard, DG Research's Key Indicators, DG Enterprise's Enterprise Policy Indicators, the OECD's Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard, the UK Competitiveness Index, the Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy, the New Economy Index, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and the World Economic Forum Competitiveness Index. While there are important differences in their precise purpose, all of the above scoreboards assume that innovation is one of the key drivers of economic performance.