Measuring Firm-Level Innovation Using Short Questionnaires : Evidence from an Experiment

Cirera, Xavier ; Muzi, Silvia

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: FOCUS GROUPS;    MARKETING STRATEGIES;    INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOR;    DISCUSSION;    CONTEXT OF INNOVATION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7696
RP-ID  :  WPS7696

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Little is known about innovation indeveloping countries, partly because of the lack ofcomparable and reliable data. Collecting data on firm-levelinnovation is challenging because of the subjectivedefinition of what determines an innovation, a problem thatis exacerbated in developing countries where innovation islikely to be more incremental and less radical. This papercontributes to the literature by presenting the results ofan experiment aiming to identify the survey instrument thatbetter captures firm-level innovation in developingcountries. The paper shows that a small set of questionsincluded in a multi-topic, firm-level survey does notprovide an accurate picture of firm-level innovation andtends to overestimate innovation rates. Issues related toframing explain some of the unreliability of innovationresponses, while cognitive problems do not appear to play asignificant role.