R&D costs (both by public sector and firms), number of engineers and people with technological education, support to innovative start-ups, protection of intellectual rights, quality of university education, support (lack of impediments) to innovative foreign investors, overall business environment (taxes, economic stability etc.), national 'mindset' (e.g. toleration of failures, readiness to take risks) ...

One of the key variables in innovation is networking capacity. This networking capacity is defined in terms of the individual's capacity to build on top of existing technologies to achieve innovations. As an example from: Science and Technology in World History by Mc Clellan and Dorn, the automobile consists of hundreds of parts manufactured around the world. He who knows how to achieve the network to bring together those pieces together and add additional elements may achieve innovation. This networking capacity takes into account:

1) Knowing where to get the necessary pieces

2) Where the qualified human resource is located

3) Bringing in the required capital investment

4) Identifying the customer and his needs

Unfortunately this networking capacity is difficult to measure at the macro level. Some of the indicators have been given by Tiia in the post above. These indicators reflect some indirect measurements used in trying to identify whether the ecosystem is in place to achieve the networking capacity of a country.

Indicators that hint at innovation at the national level can be divided into measures of inputs and outputs. Input indicators are those such as R&D expenditures and the investment in academic infrastructure. Outputs on the other hand are indicative of the results of those inputs such as number of patents(which should be treated with care and also contemplate quality).

Just a thought

Thank you so mcuh Tiia Vissak and Arturo Geigel. to guide me. hope this will be fruit full for my research.

The ability of the education system to generate students with innovation skills is important.

http://www.apjce.org/files/APJCE_15_1_1_11.pdf

I agree as well with Arturo on the importance of networking.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019850109001278

Cultural effects cannot be overlooked in the examination of "national" innovation capability, including long-term historical artifacts. For example...

a) the "stick-to-it-ivenss" of the peoples mindset (common among many Asian cultural)

b) their approach/openness to external factors/ideas (consider 'trading nations' such as the Netherlands and the disproportionately large effect their relatively small population has on the global innovation environment)

c) their ability to interact with external "nations" (ability to communicate-language, philosophical similarities, etc.)

d) their naivete in chasing big dreams (long held as a source of innovation success in the US)

Just a few thoughts for your study....

From my perspective there are several key factors effecting the capacity of national innovation systems. Most important is education since it is the basis for any functioning innovation system. It simply will not work without highly skilled and trained people. Then, you need excellent institutions like universities (but also public researc institutions ore else) conductiong (academic) basic research. Thirdly, it is necessary to establish a well functioning culture of cooperation between science and industry in order to foster innovation output on the basis of scientific results. Finally, it is necessary to provide  the relevant (research) infrastructure.

Surely, there are a lot of other factors at work, but I think that these mentioned are the most crucial ones.

I agree with most of the answers, but I think we are missing a very important key factor that is the ability to plan and to integrate policies and institutions. A strategic plan is the most important thing to build a strong national system by integrating different spheres of knowledge, actors, organizations and institutions.

I'd like to add the answer, by referring to the variables pertaining Leadership, Organizational / Knowledge Learning, Innovation and Performance. Eventually, those variables can be elaborated with sustainability, competitive advantage and/or sustainable competitive advantage.

Some of the people who study national systems of innovation use some. You could start with my review essay on Canada’s Systems of Innovation, reviewed by Eleanor D. Glor (2005/10/06)  at: http://www.innovation.cc/book-reviews/rev-essays.htm

I perfectly agree with most of you. I would at the same time add some points that -to my opinion- are important.

First of all, the nation's innovativeness is highly dependent on that of our firms. On a microeconomic level, referrring to product innovation, many Authors underline that firms innovate if they have/follow an ' innovation model' . A model is a 'precise path' that companies must follow when innovating. Each phase of the model/path  involves different roles/capabilities (organization is important; people mgmt is important!), but there is the necessity to plan effective launches too (last phase of the model).

At the same time, I think that we are all talking about active or reactive (product) innovation, but we should consider  proactive innovation and creativity too.

Does (individual) creativity affect firms' and national innovativeness? in that sense, is national culture one of the factors enabling national innovation ? I think so. At the same time time, there is a  firm's 'creativity' too, that can be leveraged as to favour continuous innovation......

you can rely on the seminal works of Freeman, Nelson, Lundvall and Malerba

Hi Khalid

Based on my previous experience, we used figures / stats of intellectual property produced by a country in measuring national innovation capacity. It is more precise & able to picture the real scenario & trend of innovativeness of a country.

Thank you 

sorry cant help

khalid,

These papers may help

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305684096_The_development_of_a_creative_class_A_national_imperative

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301341427_Reforming_Jamaica%27s_National_Systems_of_Innovation

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305687139_Priority_policy_recommendations_for_transforming_individual_productivity_and_SME_competitiveness_in_Jamaica

Presentation The development of a creative class: A national imperative

Technical Report Reforming Jamaica's National Systems of Innovation

Technical Report Priority policy recommendations for transforming individual ...