The Innovation Paradox: Developing - Country Capabilities and the Unrealized Promise of Technology Catch - Up

There is vast potential for spurring economic growth by promoting innovation, yet developing countries do surprisingly little when it comes to adopting advanced-country techniques to upgrade their products, technologies, and business processes. Unless private-sector firms and public-sector policymakers in developing economies prioritize the more agile adoption of new technologies and techniques, they will find it difficult to overcome their enduring economic constraints – slow progress in building physical and human capital, under-developed managerial capabilities, and weak government capacity.

Those are the key findings of a new report by World Bank Group economists – Xavier Cirera and William F. Maloney – who exhort developing-country public and private-sector leaders to pursue a more focused approach to innovation policy.

The report, The Innovation Paradox: Developing-Country Capabilities and the Unrealized Promise of Technological Catch-Up, underscores the challenges that policymakers and entrepreneurs face in capturing the potential gains of innovation.