Innovation leaders 🤖
Where are the world's innovation hubs?
Think of “innovation”. You probably thought of a cool new tech startup out of Silicon Valley - but there are plenty of other places around the world that do the same, if not more groundbreaking research and pioneering with advanced technology. Let’s take a look!
Innovation Hubs
Innovation hubs are defined as “cities or metropolitan areas (MA on the chart) that lead the flow of global innovation elements and influence the efficiency of resource allocation,” according to the Global Innovation Hubs Index.
It’s no surprise then, that Silicon Valley in San Francisco is ranked as the top innovation hub in the world. Interestingly, the USA and China both have 3 cities each in the top 10 - San Francisco, NYC and Boston for the US and Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong/Hong Kong/Macao for China. Key factors that help propel innovation in these hubs include top universities that supply endless talent, high R&D spending and some attractive government policies to encourage even more innovation.
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Which countries lead the way?
Zooming out to the country level, WIPO’s Global Innovation Index Report ranked the top 10 innovation leaders - and Switzerland takes the top spot for the 12th year running. It’s a fairly consistent top 10 list, with 8 of the 12 countries that appear coming from Europe. South Korea, Singapore and Israel are the only Asian countries, while the USA is the only one from the Americas. China narrowly misses out on the list coming in 11th, while Japan comes in 13th.
Surprised at Switzerland?
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Outputs > Inputs
The concept of innovation is somewhat difficult to quantify into an exact value, but that’s exactly what WIPO has done. Each country’s innovation input scores are calculated based on 5 pillars: quality of research institutions, human capital, infrastructure, market sophistication, and business sophistication; output scores are calculated based on knowledge/technology outputs (patents, publications, etc.) and creative outputs (trademarks, media, cultural exports).
Switzerland again ranks highest for output score, but the most ‘efficient’ - in terms of the lowest difference between output and input - is China, with a score of 4.4. Most of the innovation leaders from the previous chart are pretty efficient and on the higher end of the output scale.
Less-developed economies like Madagascar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are efficient too despite having much lower input scores. On the other hand, Brunei and UAE are extremely inefficient - meaning the UAE for example uses more resources to innovate to the same extent as Morocco, with almost the same output score but almost double Morocco’s input score.
See you on Friday for more charts on crime!
These are some great charts, though I wonder what innovations are coming out of Switzerland? As far as innovation clusters, we can see evidence of the "triple helix" at play: universities, government support, and a vibrant private sector: https://www.lianeon.org/p/the-triple-helix-of-innovation
Thank you for sharing.
It’s super cool how both the USA and China are rocking the innovation scene. Silicon Valley’s been the tech hotspot forever, but seeing places like Beijing and Shanghai rise up fast is wild! With NYC, Boston, and Hong Kong in the mix, and their blend of schools, money, and tech vibes, the global tech game is strong. But hey, with more folks working remotely, don’t be surprised if smaller cities start bringing their own tech mojo soon. Exciting times ahead!