Competitiveness in Research and Development: Comparisons and Performance

Citation

Meyer, J.P. (2007), "Competitiveness in Research and Development: Comparisons and Performance", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 262-263. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635770710740431

As international business competition intensifies and innovation continues at a breakneck pace, Ádám Török presents a timely and comprehensive study of the global state of research and development. As a Professor of Economics and a former head of the Hungarian Government's agency on technology policy, the author offers a particularly unique perspective on innovation systems and policies in transitional economies – such as those of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union – as well as the difficulties faced by developing Third World nations as they attempt to climb onto the global business stage. Comparing national economies through the lens of research and development is especially appropriate given the importance of vibrant internal innovation as a key driver of economic health and self‐sufficiency for these two groups of countries. To achieve these comparisons, the book establishes a theoretical foundation in the evolutionary economics point of view (Nelson, 1995) a foundation that is well suited for the transitional economies that serve as the main targets of analysis.

Though not explicitly stated, this book draws deeply upon the central ideas of seminal benchmarking literature (Camp, 1989; Spendolini, 1992; Watson, 1993) in that its goal is for transitional economies to learn successful research and development approaches from their own historical best practices and those of their more economically advanced neighbors. Given the accumulated expertise of the author, the timeliness of the topic, and the unique perspective that goes well beyond the traditional innovation powerhouses of North America, Asia, and Western Europe, this book is sure to open a few eyes to the research and development occurring on the fringes of the global economic mainstream.

The opening chapter contains a thorough review of competitiveness analysis, including its history of vague terminology, inconsistent measures, and contradictory results. This confusion, the author concludes, is further exacerbated for R&D competitiveness given the similar weaknesses of traditional innovation research – i.e. vague terminology, inconsistent measures, and contradictory results. Attempts to clarify the research in the competitiveness field in general, for example, Porter's (1990) diamond analytical tool, have been specifically applied to national innovation system comparisons (Furman et al., 2002) with some success. Still, complicating factors such as transnational firms and international R&D collaborations have left significant gaps in existing assessments of national innovative capabilities and performance levels. By singling out R&D and innovation as the basis for his comparisons, Török brings much needed focus to this work and allows for a deeper analysis of this one important facet of competitiveness. In an extensive second chapter, Török catalogs numerous supply and demand side gauges of competitiveness that enable international comparisons. Presented in both general economic and specific R&D terms, measures of national scientific output (e.g. patents), degree of science education (e.g. PhD recipients), prevailing attitudes towards, and interest in, science among the citizenry, and manpower dedicated to innovation are viewed as both absolute and relative (i.e. per capita) indicators. The third chapter, authored by Török's colleagues Balázs Borsi and András Telcs, apply many of the measures proposed in the preceding chapter in an empirical survey of national R&D competitiveness.

The first of two concluding chapters makes innovation and economic policy suggestions for transitional and developing countries as they attempt to improve their ranking on any of the numerous measures presented in this book. The overall supposition is that there is a need for very different approaches to innovation outside of advanced economies – especially those transitional nations at the pivotal point where they will either catch up to their more advanced global neighbors or fall back into Third World status. A detailed history of the Hungarian innovation system since the 1870s is used to illustrate the reality of many of these non‐traditional approaches. Through unique perspectives on education, R&D spending (both public and private), and the role of patents in national innovation systems, Török weaves a compelling narrative of his country's voyage towards EU integration and comments on the likelihood that any nation can survive such a journey. The final chapter delivers on its title's promise to present “the big picture” with an intriguing “world map” of R&D competitiveness, complete with the dominant G7 nations, a central “triad” of the USA, Japan, and the EU, as well as numerous other clusters of less innovative, yet still‐influential countries. Ultimately, Török not only clearly meets the goal of providing a comparative picture of national innovation systems, but does so with an eye towards improving the R&D competitiveness of transitional economies through historical and international benchmarking.