Post on 20-Jan-2017
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Creativity, Innovation, and Development
By Yusuf Mansur
Creativity and Culture for Development
Med Culture 1st Regional Conference
Casablanca, 27 April 2015
Abstract
Arab countries suffer significant challenges, from the scarcity of resources
(other than hydrocarbon) to small unstable markets and shifting borders.
The region also endures low development scores; even the rich countries
are more rich than developed. To further complicate the socioeconomic
landscape, the percentage of youth in the population is among the
highest in the world, so is youth unemployment. This paper benchmarks
the ranking of Arab countries in the global indices, investigates the
relationships between creativity, innovation and development, and
provides practical interventions and policy advice for improving creativity
and innovation to better develop the Southern Mediterranean.
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INTRODUCTION
Before speaking of creativity and innovation and their relation to development, it
is important to benchmark the region to describe what we are dealing with.
Empirical facts paint a portrait of fragmented, uncooperative, undeveloped and
poor economies.
The Arab region is marred by artificial, recently made, and currently being
redefined borders. It suffers from all types of restrictions, varying intra-country
levels of strife, rich countries neighboring poor ones, scarce water that is
originating, in most cases, from outside the country, different and at times
opposing neighboring political systems, a variety of autocracies, small
geographic areas next to large ones, large percentage of arid lands,
concentrations of people in small parts of the countries, etc. Outside the
hydrocarbon resources of which some countries are blessed or cursed, there is
little in terms of the traditional economic endowments.
Furthermore, cooperation in terms of trade in goods among the Arab countries is
very low. Trade in goods among Arab states is 8.6% of their total trade, and this
would fall drastically if hydrocarbon trade was removed1. According to the Inter-
Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation (IAIGC)Inter-Arab investment in 2010
was a mere $5.3 billion. This is a mere fraction of Arab investment in Europe, the
US and East Asia.
Most workers from the Arab labor-exporting nations find it easier to travel
northwards to the developed economies of the West, rather than to neighboring
Arab countries. The whole Arab region remains below its potential in terms of
development; even the “wealthy” Arab states are more rich than developed.
Moreover, it has the highest rates in the world of youth and youth
unemployment.
Add to all this the Arab Renaissance whereby youth spearheaded what
emerged as upheavals in varying degrees and forms throughout the region; and
consequent conflicts that have drawn in stakeholders from within and outside
the region.
How does one create development in such small underdeveloped economies?
Definitely not through traditional means and products. Indeed, in the digital age,
one has to and is enabled to think outside the box. Implementing solutions also
1 Saidi, N. “Time to Break Down Barriers to Intra-Arab Trade.” Financial Times, June 29, 2014.http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/46cff9e2-f857-11e3-a333-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Xwl1MWPH
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requires some very non-traditional approaches. One way is to focus on services
instead of goods. Service trade among Arab countries and with the world has
been growing at a faster rate than trade in goods. Because value added is the
essence and source of competitive advantage, the topic of this paper is how to
utilize creativity and innovation to enhance services and create development in
the Arab world.
Because culture is “the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs,
values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial
relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions
acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual
and group striving,” and “the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large
group of people.” Is vital that culture be benchmarked and utilized as a starting
point for enhancing the role for creativity and innovation to achieve
development2. In fact, culture, innovation and opportunity-driven
entrepreneurship are the three poles of a future-oriented society.
The untapped potential of creativity, and innovation and culture will be explored
during the two days of the Conference. This represents an opportunity to initiate
new models and new approaches compatible with the context(s) in
Mediterranean Partner countries.
Let’s start first by describing the rankings of the Arab Med Countries in terms of
the Doing Business Report of the IFC and the Global Competitiveness Index of
the World Economic Forum. This is followed by defining the concepts: creativity,
innovation, and development. Although they are often used, it is useful to clarify
what is meant by each one of them and explore from there the linkages that
exist in order to begin to construct our paradigm. This is followed by
recommendations on how to encourage creativity and innovation.
DOING BUSINESS AND COMPETITIVENESS
It is vital, and before describing policies and interventions to encourage
creativity and innovation to take stock of the ranking of Arab Med Countries in
the Global Competitiveness Index and the Doing Business Report.
DOING BUSINESS REPORT
2 https://www.tamu.edu/faculty/choudhury/culture.html
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The figure below provides the rankings of Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco,
Egypt, Algeria and Syria in the Doing Business Report during 2009-2015.
Source: Doing Business Report, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
Tunisia, the best performer traditionally among the Arab Med countries in the
Doing Business Report has seen its ranking worsen in recent years as a result of
the turmoil of the Arab Renaissance. Morocco has clearly been improving
ranking year-on-year; however, the clear leader in terms of Doing Business
remains Tunisia .
GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS REPORT
The figure below provides the rankings of Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco,
Egypt, Algeria and Syria in the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) during
2009-2015. Morocco is showing recent improvements according to the GCR. The
clear leader in terms of ranking is Jordan.
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Source: Global Competitiveness Report, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.
CREATIVITY
Creativity is the use of ideas to produce new ideas, which makes it unlike the
traditional economic resources, limitless. It begins in the mind, a mental
phenomenon, a conception of what might be produced before actual
production starts.3
Creativity must be communicated; thus, it is not only an act of the initiator or
sender but also of the receiver. It must be appreciated or it would be
squandered. The human experience of one that is encapsulated in a work of art
must be appreciated by the human experience of another for creativity to
flourish. Hence, creativity must be communicated, which underscores the
importance of the digital age of our times in the creation of creative works4.
Given that all humans are creative, and are busy transmitting and receiving
creative works, creativity cannot be exclusive to the privileged elites of a nation,
where there is work, there should be creativity. But work and the skill employed or
enhanced through creativity to conduct the work is not the only significance of
creativity, it is important in the overall development of human capabilities, and
3Levine, David P. 1999. “Creativity and Change: On the Psychodynamics of Modernity.” American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 43, no. 2 (October): 225-244, page 66. 4Williams, Raymond. 1961. The Long Revolution (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books).
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the freedom and autonomy in the modern market economy, which makes the
autonomous self the center of initiatives5.
CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
According to the UN, creative industries are at the crossroads of the artisan,
services and industrial sectors, and a dynamic source for growing world trade,
especially in developed countries6. They are industrial-scale productions
combined with a significant cultural content; mass-produced goods and services
with sufficient artistic content to be considered creative.
Creative industries include: performing arts, arts market, crafts, design, fashion,
film, videos, the music industry, publishing, software, toys and games, cultural
tourism, television and radio, advertising and architecture. They are
supply/value-added chains of creation, production, and distribution of goods
and services that utilize creativity and intellectual capital as primary inputs. In a
study of four Arab countries7, the contribution of creative industries to GDP in
2005 was: Lebanon 1.6 per cent, Jordan 0.7 per cent, Tunisia 0.6 per cent and
Morocco 0.5 per cent. The contribution of the music recording industry to the
GDP seems highest in Lebanon, followed by Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia and Egypt.
In terms of copyright industries, software is the most important in Egypt and
Jordan; in Lebanon and Tunisia it comes second in terms of importance and it is
least important in Morocco. Note that In Jordan, the copyright industries employ
3.4% of the work force --One JD of copyright output directly generates JD30 of
output in the economy8. In most Arab countries, the film industry contributes less
than 0.1 per cent of the GDP, with the highest contribution in Lebanon, followed
by Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.
The sector has proved to be resilient: it continued to perform well during the
recent global recession: 4.3% growth per annum since the global recession
began in 20089. This is an important fact given the current and potential
5Levine, David P. 1999. “Creativity and Change: On the Psychodynamics ofModernity.” American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 43, no. 2 (October): 225-244, page 236. 6UNCTAD, Creative Economy Report 2010, http://unctad.org/en/Docs/ditctab20103_en.pdf 7Najib Harabi. “Knowledge Intensive Industries: Four Case Studies of Creative Industries in Arab Countries,” Paper prepared for Learning Event on Developing Knowledge Economy Strategies to Improve Competitiveness in the MENA Region, May 17-21 2009 http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/251761/day3creative%20Industry%20WB_version%201.pdf
8 WIPO 2012, Economic Contribution of the Copyright-Based Industries in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
9 The Economic Impact of the Creative Industries in the Americas, a report prepared by Oxford Economics for the British Council, IDB, OAS.
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instabilities in the region. In the context of continued instability in the region,
culture could become an important lever of development, especially among
youth. Given the high percentage of youth in the Southern Med, creative
industries, which tend to have a higher percentage than other sectors in youth
employment, become even more important10.
INNOVATION
Innovation is the application of better solutions that meet new requirements in
expected or existing market needs11.Simply put, while an invention is a discovery,
an innovation is the application of the invention to produce goods and services.
Innovation is generally considered as a practice that brings into implementation
new ideas to positively impact society. Note that it is difficult for innovation to
happen in societies where creativity is not promoted or encouraged--through
education, exchanges, exposure to diverse influences, etc.
Creativity can lead to innovation only when its value is favourably perceived,
and when “creative talents are better organised through business and
supported by institutions, and where competition encourages and […] rewards
creativity and entrepreneurship.”12 Hence the need to address issues such as
education, training, and cultural policies, especially if a nation desires to create
more jobs for its youth.
Joseph Schumpeter first introduced innovation into economics in 194213, where
he underscored that industries must innovate with better or more effective
processes and products in a process of “creative destruction”. It is widely
accepted that innovations in technology and management are necessary to
improve quality or reduce the cost of production and consequently
price14.Indeed, innovation has been recognized as a tool in the fight against
poverty by major development bodies such as DFID (Global Innovation Fund),
the Gates Foundation and USAID.
According to the New Growth Theory, also known as the Endogenous Growth
Theory, investment in human capital, innovation, and knowledge are principal
10 The Economic Impact of the Creative Industries in the Americas, by Oxford Economics for the British Council, IDB and Organisation of American States, p. 4. 11Maranville, S (1992). Entrepreneurship in the Business Curriculum,Journal of Education for Business, Vol. 68 No. 1, pp.27-31. 12 Creative industries for youth: unleashing potential and growth. United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, Vienna, 2013. 13 Schumpeter, J. A. (1943). Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (6th ed.). Routledge. pp. 81–84. 14 Heyne, P., Boettke, P. J., and Prychitko, D. L. (2010). The Economic Way of Thinking. Prentice Hall, 12th ed. Pp. 163, 317–318.
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contributors to economic growth15. Positive externalities and spillover effects in a
knowledge-based economy lead to economic development. Increasing the
incentive to innovate, increases growth. As Paul Hofheinz pointed out, “Any
‘economic growth’ strategy which ignores the all-important strand of promoting,
encouraging and developing innovation is doomed to fail,”16 which is why the
New Growth Theory considers creativity, innovation and knowledge as more
important contributors to growth than physical inputs.
The following is a snapshot of the Arab Med Countries ranking in terms of
innovation.
Source: Global Innovation reports, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.
Note that almost all Arab countries exhibit an upward trend in ranking in terms of
innovation. Morocco and Algeria provide examples of recent improvements.
DEVELOPMENT
Since we are also addressing competitiveness, let’s start with a definition of
development from Harvard Professor, Michael E. Porter in his 1990 book The
Competitive Advantage of Nations. He defined development there as the "long-
term process of building a number of interdependent microeconomic
capabilities and incentives to support more advanced forms of competition."
Therefore, to Porter, development meant long-term competitiveness or
productivity and the spread of clusters. Years later, he wrote, “Where there is an
15Romer, P. M. (1994). "The Origins of Endogenous Growth". The Journal of Economic Perspectives 8 (1): 3–22. 16Paul Hofheinz.“An Innovation Agenda for Europe”. Policy Netwrok - 02 APRIL 2015. http://www.policy-network.net/pno_detail.aspx?ID=4879&title=An-innovation-agenda-for-Europe
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imbalance between economic growth and social progress, political instability
and unrest often arise… Lagging social progress also holds back economic
growth in these and other countries that fail to address human needs, build
social capital, and create opportunity for their citizens. Countries must invest in
social progress, not just economic institutions, to create the proper foundation for
economic growth.”17
The Noble Laureate, Amartya Sen argues that human development is about the
expansion of citizens’ capabilities, “Development consists of the removal of
various types of unfreedoms that leave people with little choice and little
opportunity for exercising their reasoned agency”, and agency here means,
“what a person is free to do and achieve in pursuit of whatever goals or values
he or she regards as important.”18 Hence, to Amartya Sen, to achieve
development we must work on creating healthy well trained people and afford
them the opportunity to employ their talents.
Economic development can be described in terms of objectives and process. In
terms of objectives, the objectives of economic development are: job creation,
job retention, tax base enhancements and quality of life. As a process,
economic development is described as a set of policies that governments
undertake to influence the economic welfare of its people: inflation control, job
creation, sustainable growth rates, enabling services (including education,
training, highways, parks, and medical access), business finance, marketing,
neighborhood development, business retention and expansion, technology
transfer, real estate development and others19. Increasingly, economic
development encompasses the promotion of regional clusters and metropolitan
economies to create competitive advantage.
This is a tall order and one that can only be achieved with freedom guarantees,
properly working institutions that are democratic, accountable and transparent.
Furthermore, such institutions should not be exclusive. As creativity is not
exclusive, proper governance is required to be all inclusive, transparent and
accountable. All elements of society and the components of the culture of the
group and the sub cultures are all sources of wealth for a nation.
17http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/economic-development-social-progress-index-by-michael-porter-
2015-04#5d2JiEJk7FDdou4B.99 18Amartya Sen, Quoted in 2002 AHDR, http://www.arab-hdr.org/publications/other/ahdr/ahdr2002e.pdf 19The International Economic Development Council’s Economic Development Reference Guide, The Power
of Knowledge and Leadership.
http://www.iedconline.org/clientuploads/Downloads/IEDC_ED_Reference_Guide.pdf
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Diversity should be encouraged and accepted. If not properly promoted and
developed by a strong state that is not controlled by a group of elites, this
wealth of material for creative products diminishes or languishes into obscurity.
The systems, if not inclusive, transparent and merit based will end up suffocating
the cultural/creative capital. In other words, one requires a reversal of the role of
the state from being rentier, to one that is merit based.
Indeed, the study of institutions and their role in economic development has
been underscored in the works of Buchanan and Tullock (1965), North and
Thomas (1970), Olson (1982), McNeill (1982) and Macfarlane (2002), Shliefer
(2004), and Shirley (2005), among others20. No longer does one view resources
such as human capital as inputs but as outputs forged by the existence of
enabling political and social intuitions and whether formal and informal
institutions impede or encourage development.
In their well-known book Why Nations Fail, Daron Acemoglu and James A.
Robinson present an interesting example of the role played by creative freedoms
in long-term economic and political development. Previous to the spread of
printing presses, books had been expensive and time-consuming to produce,
which hindered the development of greater creative potential. In 1439, the
invention of the Gutenberg Press, ushered the printing revolution (the number of
printed books rose from under 10 million in the 15th century to almost one billion in
the 18th century21), which played a crucial role in the Renaissance and enabled
Europe and its economies to become knowledge-based.
While printing technology was already spreading across Europe in the late 1400s,
it was not until 1727 that the first printing press opened in Istanbul, and even then
printing was subject to harsh censorship. In the end, the Ottoman Empire paid
the price for its elitist restrictive policy. In the early 1800s only 2 to 3 percent of its
citizens were able to read, whereas 60 percent of English males and 40 percent
of English females were literate. Well into the mid 19th century, the majority of
books in the Ottoman Empire were hand written. The situation in the region,
20Buchanan, J. M., and Tullock, G. (1965) The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; Shirley, M. M. (2005) “Institutions and Development.” In C. Ménard and M. M. Shirley (eds.) Handbook of New Institutional Economics. Dordrecht: Springer; North, D. C., and Thomas, R. P. (1970) “An Economic Theory of the Growth of the Western World.” Economic History Review 23: 1–17; Shleifer, A. (2004) “Do Institutions Cause Growth?” Journal of Economic Growth 9: 271–303; Macfarlane, A. (2002) The Making of the Modern World: Visions from the West and East. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave. McNeill, W. H. (1982).
21Buringh, Eltjo; van Zanden, Jan Luiten: "Charting the “Rise of the West”: Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries", The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 69, No. 2 (2009), pp. 409–445.
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under the rule of the Ottomans, did not chance to benefit from printing until in
Egypt, the first printing press was set up in 1798 by Napoleon Bonaparte.
The following is a presentation of the rankings of Arab countries 2009-2014 in the
Human Development Report.
Source: Human Development reports, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.
ENCOURAGING CREATIVITY
First and foremost the creative industries require freedoms, the freedom to
express one’s self, to protect the expression through enforced copyright and
patent laws, and to benefit from the revenue or income generated from the
creative work at home and abroad. While the freedom is an overall framework
and a necessary first step, the state must undertake several other activities:
1. Coordinate across a wide set of ministries: finance, planning, trade,
industry, local/regional development, labor, domestic and foreign
investment, technology and communication sector (telephone services,
the Internet, broadband, satellite communications, etc.), culture, tourism,
social affairs, and education.
2. Foster an open, dynamic, personal and professional urban environment,
which will attract more creative people, businesses and capital.
3. Enable easy entry, startup (among other procedures make registration
equivalent to licensing, activate one-stop windows, electronic
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government and registration, etc.) and easy exit (introduce bankruptcy
legislation).
4. Dialogue should, as in all policy making involve, involve: public sector,
private sector, and civil society.
5. Education embeds in the citizen a perception of her role, and the value of
that role in society. The starting point in reform is to have educational
systems that encourage creativity. Look at and revise the syllabi in public
schools, creativity is not an elite undertaking but should be a common
practice by the poor as well as the well to do. Think creative schools,
creative spaces, and make creative people.
6. Map the creative industries in your country. Take stock of what you have.
Each nation must study and evaluate the supply chain of the creative
industry it wishes to promote. In many cases, the state may indirectly and
unknowingly through existing intuitions that claim to be in support of a
creative industry may be thwarting such an effort because it has no
resources and thus become another regulator instead of a promoter.
Under such a scenario seek other countries in the region, which is
commonly being done nowadays or work as if the government is not
there to help you: work without expecting that initial seedling of support
from the state.
7. Make cities creative by focusing on the arts and cultural activities, the
media and entertainment industries, and the creative business-to business
services. Improve the value chain whenever possible by marketing and
social networking. “Cities have one crucial resource – their people.
Human cleverness, desires, motivations, imagination and creativity are
replacing location, natural resources and market access as urban
resources. The creativity of those who live in and run cities will determine
future success. As cities became large and complex enough to present
problems of urban management so they became laboratories that
developed the solutions – technological, conceptual and social – to the
problems of growth”22.
8. Avoid telling the creative workers what to do, tell them what not to do
and help them, get out of their way anytime you can. Regulations that
can be removed without harming the welfare of a nation should be
removed, use a guillotine to quickly remove obstacles.
9. Most the countries of the region have signed intellectual property rights
protection agreements such as TRIPS and others. However,
implementation is not there. A country that permits the piracy of films will
make it extremely difficult for a film industry to flourish. The creative
22 Landry, C. The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators in 2000, London: Earthscan Publications, page XII.
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workers must work with the existing challenges if the state does not
provide them ample protection. A distributor for example that has to live
with this challenge should attempt to price original copies in a way that
permits competition with the counterfeit copy.
10. Avail formal funding sources. Creative industries can be extremely
profitable, and they are not without risk, having funding sources that
understand the nature of creative industries is vital to growing a creative
economy. If funding from traditional sources is not available, one could
attempt crowdfunding. Recently in Jordan, Jo Bedu the makers of
custom made T-shirts managed to raise over US$120000 last year through
crowdfunding23. However, it is best for governments in the region to
create funds for startups and venture capital funds.
11. Promote the development of creative clusters, the more specialized while
still encompassing the related and supporting industries) the greater the
advantage as the value added deepens and so does the competitive
advantage. The convergence of firms involved in music, film, visual arts,
fashion and design in well-defined clusters is essential to survival and
growth of the creative industries. They generate, promote and develop
creative industries and encourage quick positive externalities. There is no
substitute to having flourishing, well connected and functioning clusters.
12. Encourage the establishment of regional creative clusters across
countries, especially where cultural experiences and the arts are similar.
This is simply extending and applying the concept of near sourcing to the
creative industries.
13. Trade in services can be easier than the trade in goods; cooperation is
thus feasible and is almost free of the shipping and logistical obstacles as
well as technical trade barriers. International trade allows the policy
maker another tool, measuring the contribution of creativity to the
economy.
14. Build creative ecologies: creativity depends on a mix of four factors:
diversity, change, learning, and adaptation24. Encourage the growth of
such ecologies in your country even if it means inviting in the brightest
people from outside the country—Dubai does this best.
15. When possible establish techno poles or technical parks, merging
incubator facilities with exhibits and training facilities. This not only
23 Mansur, Y. “Crowdfunding Creativity”. Jordan Times, May 05, 2014.
http://jordantimes.com/share-content/crowdfunding-creativity.html 24 Howkins, J. Creative Ecologies: Where Thinking is a Proper Job Paperback – July 31, 2010
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encourages startups but also promotes their works and develops the
required skilled labor.
16. Make SME friendly legislation; there are good examples to follow from the
EU and USA such as the Small Businesses Act. Most creative workers are
entrepreneurial by their very nature and would want to start their own
businesses, make your environment not only business friendly but also SME
friendly.
17. Firms can encourage the demand for creativity by involving consumers in
the co-production of their good or service.
18. Make prizes for creativity, rewards do work. One example is the
Mohammad Ben Rashid Creative Awards.
19. Avoid the export of people; they are the essence of the creative
economy, cities and industries. Losing your creative workers to others is like
selling the trees not their fruit.
20. Ensure that the environment is safeguarded, no use sacrificing the future
for temporary economic gains.
Finally, build a creative economy culture, stay focused on the prize and process,
and link the creative activities together and with traditional services and industry.
Creativity and its inventions translate whenever possible into innovations that are
implementable.
ENCOURAGING INNOVATION
Culture, innovation and opportunity-driven entrepreneurship are the three poles
of a future-oriented society. The state must therefore, encourage the utilization of
culture and the development of an innovation culture in a system that offers
opportunities to entrepreneurs. A culture that demands and produces creative
and innovative products grows far beyond its traditional resource endowments,
suffers no diminishing but increasing returns and enters into a virtuous cycle of
creativity, innovation and development.
In a survey conducted four years ago in Jordan, owners of small enterprises,
when asked if they would implement innovations if availed to them, they said no!
They neither had the time nor could they see the benefit from it. Encouraging the
creation of an innovative culture has to do with competition, a thriving highly
contestable market that is value added focused and taking risks. People must
come to recognize competition and creative destruction as the road into a
better tomorrow. Promoting and propagating the spread of such a culture
places the overall framework for development within reach of all. Therefore:
15
1. Have a sound, modern and stable economic environment. This is a
necessary underpinning; it is, however only a starting point.
2. Encourage access to finance, provide funds and loan guarantees, train
banks on dealing with the financing of innovations especially to SMEs, and
train SMEs on how to apply for such financing and receiving it.
3. Establish programs for industry and service upgrading; experience shows
that such programs do encourage innovation. Good programs would
address the main obstacles: demand, financing, training and utilization.
4. Improve your rankings in the Global Competitiveness Index, the Doing
Business Report, the Global Innovation Index; yes, those rankings do
matter, and regardless of what you think of them, they provide
benchmarks, follow them religiously and improve your nation’s score.
5. Complement the global indices with domestic and highly specific data
and measures. Build from the indices your own goals and targets and
measure them. Having detailed information at hand for your innovators,
creative workers and the traditional industries is a boon to all; do not
underestimate its benefit.
6. Focus on design, advertising and entertainment, which are drivers of
innovation in the broader economy and shape the “experience
economy”25.
7. Do not limit support to innovation in science and technology but also
encourage “soft innovation”, innovations that focus on the aesthetics26.
8. Does not be simply an exporter of inventions; also become an early
implementer of these inventions. Innovation encourages greater creativity
and more innovation, it is a virtuous cycle.
25 Pine, J. and Gilmore, J. (1999). The Experience Economy, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1999. 26 Stoneman, P. (2009). Soft innovation: Economics, Product Aesthetics and the Creative Industries.Oxford University Press, Oxford