Innovation

Dynamic Briefing
Generated 06 November 2021 for Arelia Eberhardt
Innovation
Co-curated with Nesta

Last review on Mon 12 November 2018

About

This dynamic briefing draws on the collective intelligence of the Forum network to explore the key trends,
interconnections and interdependencies between industry, regional and global issues. In the briefing, you
will find a visual representation of this topic (Transformation Map – interactive version available online via
intelligence.weforum.org ), an overview and the key trends affecting it, along with summaries and links to
the latest research and analysis on each of the trends. Briefings for countries also include the relevant
data from the Forum’s benchmarking indices. The content is continuously updated with the latest
thinking of leaders and experts from across the Forum network, and with insights from Forum meetings,
projects communities and activities.

Innovation Briefing, November 2021

Executive summary
Innovation is the process of turning new ideas into value, in the form of new products, services, or ways
of doing things. It is deceptively complex, and goes beyond mere creativity and invention to include the
practical steps necessary for facilitating adoption. New innovations tend to build on earlier versions, in a
way that fuels the vast majority of the world's productivity and economic growth. It is now abundantly
clear that truly innovative firms can significantly outperform their peers, if they are allowed to flourish.

This briefing is based on the views of a wide range of experts from the World Economic Forum’s Expert
Network and is curated in partnership with Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of Nesta, and Christopher
Haley, Head of Startups and New Technology Research, Nesta.

1. Government Innovation
Governments are spurring innovation, while benefiting from
new ways to fix potholes and reduce crime.

2. Innovation for Social Benefit

Profit is not the only source of inspiration for innovators.

3. Innovation Systems
Innovation does not occur in isolation, and requires a diverse
cast of characters.

4. Business Model Innovation

The internet has given us Netflix, freemium models and the
rapid disappearance of physical shops.

5. Technological Innovation
Artificial intelligence may yet rank among historic
developments like the steam engine and the automobile.

Innovation Briefing, November 2021

Government Innovation

Governments are spurring innovation, while benefiting from new ways to fix potholes
and reduce crime

"Government" may not be the first thing that comes to mind

when one thinks about innovation, but some of the greatest
innovations - like space flight and the internet - have only been
made possible because governments took risks and provided
the resources needed to scale up big ideas. Governments
themselves also require innovation. They are generally faced
with significant expectations, shrinking budgets, and fragile
public trust; adequately responding requires new tools, and
entirely new models. Disillusionment has fuelled innovation
aimed at making government more representative. Examples of
“digital democracy” tools include systems that enable people to
receive real-time notifications about issues important to them,
new methods of crowdsourcing and collaboration, new means
of participatory budgeting, and software that can make online
voting secure. Some public-minded innovation draws on diverse
pools of knowledge and expertise to solve complex problems.
For example, a number of ambulance authorities now use
GoodSAM, a mobile system that can alert trained first
responders when someone in their vicinity may be suffering
cardiac arrest, and also locate the nearest defibrillator.

A lot of government innovation is being spurred by new

approaches to digitalization, in the form of digital services, smart
cities, and open data (made freely available for reuse). Estonia is
perhaps a leading example; the country has established secure
digital authentication and digital signatures, enabling more
online interaction. On a more local level, city governments are
weaving the Internet of Things, which ties devices together via
internet connection, into the fabric of cities in order to better
address hot spots for crime, or to determine where emergency
responders should be positioned at different times of day. The
London Datastore, a free, publicly-funded data portal, provides
datasets to help enterprising members of the public develop
solutions for London’s problems; one result is Citymapper, an
app that makes use of open data from public transport
operators to provide real-time alerts. Meanwhile citizen-
generated data is being used by many governments to make
processes more efficient. For example, some cities are using
information delivered via apps like StreetBump to locate and
prioritize potholes for repair. However, government innovation is
often stifled by bureaucracy. For that reason, many
governments have established dedicated innovation teams
designed to overcome the inertia of large public entities and
provide space for experimentation.

Related insight areas: Digital Communications, Blockchain, Agile

Governance, Global Governance, Public Finance and Social
Protection, Internet of Things, Future of Mobility, Cities and
Urbanization, Future of Computing, Civic Participation

Innovation Briefing, November 2021

 Latest knowledge

International Monetary Fund (IMF) BCG

Managing Technology in Finance: Igniting Innovation-Based Growth in
Global Approaches for the Digital Age Africa
31 October 2021 15 October 2021

Building a National Innovation Strategy For nations to

World Economic Forum compete and prosper in the new globalization environment
Facebook is now 'Meta.' This is what characterized by rapid geopolitical, technological, and
'metaverse' could mean societal change, governments can no longer rely on
29 October 2021 economic development paths championed in the 20th
century, such as moving up the ladder of basic industries and
The metaverse doesn’t exist - at least not yet. As of today, export manufacturing. They need to set their sights on
there isn’t anything that could legitimately be identified as a knowledge-intensive, innovation-driven fields that can create
metaverse. A useful parallel for understanding its maturity – value well into the future. Governments should begin by
with a hat-tip to technology analyst Benedict Evans for the taking two steps: Define a national ambition. Governments
reference – may be the story of when telecoms entrepreneur should first define a national ambition in light of the evolving
Craig McCaw first heard about the internet. Reputedly, it was opportunities in the emerging, digitally connected, Industry
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs who described the 4.0-driven global economy.
implications that a globally distributed network of
interconnected computers could have on communications, World Economic Forum
commerce and information. How to build digital public
infrastructure: 7 lessons from Estonia
Raconteur
04 October 2021
Budget 2021: what it means for
British business Estonia has built digital public infrastructure that delivers
27 October 2021 automated and reusable government services in a human-
centric, secure and private way; How Estonia has created
Chancellor Rishi Sunak used the Budget today (27 October) these public services can be applied to local and global
to usher in a “higher wage, higher skill, higher productivity efforts; From collaborating with other digital nations to how to
economy”. Unusually for a Budget, many of the Treasury’s deal with legacy challenges, here's how Estonia has built and
set-piece announcements were revealed ahead of the sustained its digital services, even during the COVID-19
Chancellor’s speech. pandemic. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Estonia a big
part of life moved into the home. Streets and offices were
World Economic Forum
empty and simple things, previously taken for granted,
How digital transformation can build became obsolete.
more resilient businesses
22 October 2021 Brookings
The metachallenges of the metaverse
Through investment in digital transformation, businesses can 30 September 2021
lay the foundation for long-term resilience to future crises.
From modernizing supply chains to prioritizing cybersecurity, Just what is this “metaverse”? Today’s online
organizations must act to keep pace with digital activity can be described as a 2D experience; the metaverse
transformation. The recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is a 3D experience that can utilize augmented reality (AR),
affords a huge opportunity for the world to prioritize digital virtual reality (VR), and persistent connections to create an
transformation to future-proof the global economy. During immersive world. Rather than spending 20-30 minutes a day
the COVID-19 pandemic, schools, hospitals, businesses and moving among apps, users spend hours in much more
governments have depended on technological innovation realistic activities. As Zuckerberg explained, “you can think
more than ever before to keep their operations afloat. As about this [the metaverse] as an embodied internet that you
nations work to rebuild and reinvigorate the global economy , are inside of rather than just looking at.”.
recovery plans must focus on creating jobs, investing in
infrastructure and driving innovation with sustainability at the
very core.

Innovation Briefing, November 2021

Innovation for Social Benefit

Profit is not the only source of inspiration for innovators

Examples of social innovation are all around us; they include

everything from kindergartens and hospices to more modern Related insight areas: Entrepreneurship, Civic Participation,
innovations like Wikipedia and microfinance (small loans made Workforce and Employment, Vaccination, Fourth Industrial
to entrepreneurs in the developing world without access to Revolution, Agile Governance, Cities and Urbanization, Social
traditional bank loans). Social innovation is often defined as Innovation, Circular Economy, Ageing and Longevity, Inclusive
innovation that aims to both tackle social problems and upgrade Design, Sustainable Development
the means used to address those problems. This can take the
form of new products, services, initiatives, organizational
models, or simply novel approaches to accessing public goods
- often achieved by creatively re-combining already-existing
elements. The field has developed rapidly in recent years, as
new sources of funding, public policies, academic research,
and networks are developed in service of it. The everyday work
of social innovation typically happens within social enterprises
(organizations trying to solve social problems by using practical,
market-based approaches), charities, non-governmental
organizations, social movements, or patient groups.
Universities, large companies, and governments can also play
important roles, particularly in terms of validating and scaling-up
valuable ideas; past examples of this scaling-up include the
expansion of the kindergarten movement to privately-run
nurseries, the construction of public playgrounds, and the
commercialization of open source software developed by
communities).

One particularly interesting area of social innovation involves the

development of tools used to support digital democracy, or
“civic tech,” designed to encourage broader civic engagement -
by, for example, promoting political campaigns, working to stop
corruption, or helping communities self-organize. Social
innovation faces barriers that are different than those standing in
the way of other kinds of innovation, however. The lack of
immediately-apparent commercial incentives in social innovation
typically makes it more difficult to raise the capital needed to
support it, for example, and some innovation can threaten
existing power structures - which may respond accordingly. In
order to cope with such challenges, the people driving social
innovation may sometimes deploy “frugal innovation”; closely
tied to the Indian concept of “jugaad innovation,” frugal
innovation involves doing more with less in order to reach
normally-overlooked consumers, or to make scarce public
resources stretch further. One example of this is the M-Pesa
mobile phone-based payment and microfinancing service,
which has been deployed in countries in Africa, Asia, and
eastern Europe to enable people to access banking services on
an everyday device - without requiring access to an actual
bank.

Innovation Briefing, November 2021

 Latest knowledge

VoxEU Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

The macroeconomic footprint of the - Knowledge@Wharton
Elons Is the Great Resignation Giving Rise to
05 November 2021 the Entrepreneur?
25 October 2021
Business dynamism has long been recognised as a key driver
of aggregate outcomes, with startups and young firms Wharton management professor Jacqueline “Jax” Kirtley isn’t
playing a particularly important role. Using data from Portugal, making any predictions about when or how the Great
this column shows that entrepreneurs themselves are key Resignation will end. Nearly 4.3 million Americans quit their
determinants of firm performance. Serial entrepreneurship is jobs in August, the highest number on record since the
widespread, and businesses of serial entrepreneurs government began collecting data 20 years ago. The quit
outperform all other firms along multiple dimensions. They rate coincides with a dramatic surge in applications for new
have a disproportionate impact on the aggregate economy, businesses since the COVID-19 pandemic began, mostly for
including for our understanding and modelling of top income sole-proprietor ventures. The pandemic is to blame for these
inequality. concussive shocks to the labor market, but Kirtley is careful
about drawing any conclusions. “We’re seeing a lot of people
IMD Business School embrace this opportunity to do something different.
Data shows effects of COVID-19 and
climate change on citizens’ INSEAD Knowledge
perceptions of how ‘smart’ their cities The World’s Most Talent Competitive
are Countries, 2021
28 October 2021 19 October 2021

The third edition of the annual IMD-SUTD Smart City Index As Covid swept across the world, nations had very different
(SCI) released today has revealed that city-dwellers’ responses to how their economies should continue to
perceptions of how technology is helping to address urban function. Some tethered workers to their employers with
challenges has been highly affected by the pandemic and its furlough programmes ; others hoped for the best . How
acceleration of digital transformation. governments responded (or didn’t) had an enormous impact
on their citizens’ physical and economic health. Of course,
OECD talent competitiveness is one of many areas that felt the
G20/OECD-INFE Report on Supporting immediate and sudden change. Covid generated a series of
Financial Resilience and shockwaves across the global talent landscape.
Transformation through Digital Center for Global Development
Financial Literacy Labour Mobility with Vocational Skill:
27 October 2021
Australian Demand and Pacific Supply
This report discusses the concept of financial resilience and 14 October 2021
its relationship with financial inclusion, financial literacy and
How many immigrants with less than university education, for
financial well-being. It offers a wide range of case studies
a given immigration quota, maximise economic output? The
looking at the role of digital financial education initiatives
answer is simple—zero—in the canonical model of the labour
addressing financial resilience and vulnerability. It proposes
market, where the marginal product of a university-educated
set of effective approaches describing how the digital
immigrant is always higher. We build an alternative model,
financial education programmes can support individual
following Jones (2005), in which national production occurs
financial resilience and long-term well-being.
through a set of Leontief production functions that shift over
time with technological change.

Innovation Briefing, November 2021

Innovation Systems

Innovation does not occur in isolation, and requires a diverse cast of characters

Innovation tends to involve a lot of players; innovation systems

are composed of research institutions, universities, national
laboratories, hospitals, corporations, startups, venture
capitalists, and patent attorneys. The public sector can play a
key role, in the form of funding bodies and intermediary
organizations like technology transfer offices and accelerators
(programs designed to turn raw startups into young
companies). The ways in which these participants interact are
complex, and subject to local quirks like tax breaks, regulations,
patent treaties, and competition rules. They are also influenced
by factors including the availability of codified knowledge
(publications and standards). A lot of innovation policy has
focused on filling institutional voids, improving innovation
capability, and strengthening networks; in some countries, there
are dedicated innovation agencies that aim to serve as system
fixers by addressing failures in markets and networks, often
without preference for specific technologies or sectors.
Enterprise Singapore, for example, was formed in the city state
in 2018 to champion entrepreneurial innovation while
overseeing standards and accreditation.

A systemic view can be useful at the local level; people working

with startups often refer to "startup ecosystems," for example,
to describe the networks of organizations, both private and
public, from which young enterprises can draw resources.
Many efforts to improve entrepreneurship have focused on
enriching these ecosystems with measures designed to
facilitate connections and improve density. Innovation systems
also exist in a narrower sense - many collective intelligence
tools, such as wikis (websites developed and overseen by
communities) and prediction markets enable people to make
judgments that may be better than otherwise possible. It’s
important to note that the notion of an “innovation system” is
different from “systems innovation” - the latter refers to the
challenges of innovating by re-configuring complex systems,
like national health care systems or financial systems, and is
often challenging because it requires coordinated action by
multiple actors while creating complex feedback loops that lead
to unpredictable, and sometimes unintended consequences.

Related insight areas: Cities and Urbanization, Internet

Governance, Science, Education, Skills and Learning,
Sustainable Development, Justice and Law, Fourth Industrial
Revolution, Agile Governance, Entrepreneurship, Private
Investors

Innovation Briefing, November 2021

 Latest knowledge

Harvard Business Review Center for International Forestry Research

Research: How Management Practices Pongamia: A Possible Option for
Impact M&A Outcomes Degraded Land Restoration and
02 November 2021 Bioenergy Production in Indonesia
26 October 2021
Common wisdom suggests that good management is good
business — but actually quantifying the impact of Indonesia has 14 million ha of degraded and marginal land,
management practices on key business outcomes such as which provides very few benefits for human wellbeing or
M&As and financial performance is often easier said than biodiversity. This degraded land may require restoration. The
done. To address this challenge, we leveraged data from the leguminous tree Pongamia pinnata syn. Milettia pinnata
U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 Management and Organizational (pongamia) has potential for producing biofuel while
Practices Survey (the most recent edition available when we simultaneously restoring degraded land. However, there is
began our study). The survey quantified management limited information on this potential for consideration. This
practices at more than 35,000 U.S. manufacturing plants, paper aims to address the scientific knowledge gap on
providing a level of visibility into the inner workings of these pongamia by exploring its potential as a biofuel and for
companies that is difficult to come by in other industries. For restoring degraded land in Indonesia. We applied a literature
example, survey questions included: How many key review to collect relevant information of pongamia, which we
performance indicators (KPIs) were monitored at this analyzed through narrative qualitative and narrative
establishment? What best describes the time frame of comparative methods with careful compilation and scientific
production targets at this establishment?. interpretation of retrieved information.

Better Than Cash Alliance VoxEU

Catalyzing Responsible Digital Effectiveness of subsidy applications
Payments in the North East Region of for small businesses
India 24 October 2021
28 October 2021
While large businesses in Japan have seen a gradual
Taking stock of the digital payments ecosystem with a 7- increase in labour productivity since the global financial crisis,
point action plan to expand the merchant acceptance the productivity of SMEs remains stagnant. This
network Better Than Cash Alliance’s new research, with column investigates the effects of the Japanese
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, government’s Business Sustainable Subsidy programme,
pegs the merchant digitization opportunity in the region at launched in response to this situation, on SMEs’
$18 billion (Rs.130,000 crore), which can be tapped if the 1.5 performance. The findings suggest that application to the
million (15 lakh) merchants embrace digitization. The report subsidy in itself promotes firms' voluntary activities to
recommends 7 priority actions to make digital payments address their business issues through external support and
better than cash to improve the lives of merchants and their improves their productivity.
families.
Science Daily
Artificial intelligence helps to find new
natural substances
14 October 2021

More than a third of all medicines available today are based

on active substances from nature and a research team has
developed a procedure to identify small active substance
molecules much more quickly and easily.

Nature
Nobel-winning ‘natural experiments’
approach made economics more
robust
13 October 2021

Joshua Angrist, Guido Imbens and David Card share the

prize for finding a way to identify cause and effect in social
science.

Innovation Briefing, November 2021

Business Model Innovation

The internet has given us Netflix, freemium models and the rapid disappearance of
physical shops

Many successful innovators are said to have re-written the rules

of their industry - which usually means that they managed to
change accepted practices, and to disrupt established
relationships. Although not all business model innovation
involves new technology, a lot of it has been driven by
information and communications technologies that both enable
the rapid reconfiguration of value networks and give rise to new
forms of value creation. The internet has altered distribution
channels (compare Netflix’s online content distribution with
now-antiquated video rental stores), and enabled supply chain
disintermediation; Dell and Amazon can now bypass traditional
retail space and sell directly to consumers (according to a report
published by Deloitte, a record annual total of 6,885 physical
stores had already closed in the US during 2017 by December
1 of that year). The internet has also given rise to the “freemium”
model for services and software; Dropbox, for example, makes
basic file storage free but charges for additional capacity.
Offshoring has also been a result, as things like basic IT
functions move to relatively low-cost places like Bangalore.
Another result: a proliferation of businesses, like Facebook,
trafficking in personal data and advertising.

Business model innovation often flows from a unique take on

customer needs, and on the best ways to satisfy them. The
idea of software-as-a-service, for example, represented by
offerings like Salesforce tools for businesses or Gmail, was
driven by firms that realized customers do not necessarily care
about owning software outright. Customer needs, however, are
multi-faceted and often poorly articulated, making it a challenge
for firms to judge whether or not a business model innovation
has delivered what people actually want. As Clayton
Christensen wrote in his 1997 book The Innovator's Dilemma,
disruptive innovation of any sort will often first gain traction with
a customer base that is difficult to identify (which is why many
firms fatally ignore the threat of disruptive innovation until it is
too late). There is some evidence that business model
innovation may provide greater competitive advantage, and
shareholder returns, than product or service innovation.
However, successful business model innovation often requires
simultaneous change in multiple parts of an organization, the
development of all new competencies, and, potentially, the
cannibalization of existing products or services. ​

Related insight areas: Entrepreneurship, Future of Computing,

Emerging-Market Multinationals, Digital Communications, Retail,
Consumer Goods and Lifestyle, Future of Economic Progress,
Corporate Governance, Fourth Industrial Revolution

10

Innovation Briefing, November 2021

 Latest knowledge

Frontiers Wired
The Role of the Global Value Chain in Games Can Show Us How to Enact
Improving Trade and the Sustainable Justice in the Metaverse
Competitive Advantage: Evidence 19 October 2021
From China’s Manufacturing Industry
01 November 2021 It was 2016, and Jordan Belamire was excited to experience
*QuiVr*, a new fantastical virtual reality game, for the first
In the domain of globalization, the global value chain (GVC) is time. With her husband and brother-in-law looking on, she
formed across diverse economies. Owing to the expansion of put on a VR headset and became immersed in a snowy
economic globalization and the resultant global trade landscape. Represented by a disembodied set of floating
liberalization, the geographical isolation of production and hands along with a quiver, bow, and hood, Belamire was
consumption has resulted in the transfer of polluting now tasked with taking up her weapons to fight mesmerizing
emissions from advanced economies to developing states. hordes of glowing monsters. Her excitement quickly turned
Developing economies, falling in the middle and low end of sour.
the GVC, have to strive hard to expand their production in the
Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
GVC, while simultaneously addressing the consequent
environmental damage and attending to the core Should Global Beer Company Molson
environmental concerns of sustainable growth, energy Coors Dive into the Cannabis
preservation and drastic cuts in CO 2 . This paper addresses Beverages Business?
how manufacturing subsidiaries can improve their low-carbon 19 October 2021
innovation ability and help to achieve a sustainable
competitive advantage through the embedded GVC. In March 2019, Molson Coors CEO Mark Hunter considered
a request to pull forward $65 million to build a facility in
World Economic Forum Canada to produce cannabis beverages. This request was
Overcoming 3 hurdles to building not part of the original plan to test the waters with a few
sustainable products and brands products in a small geography to see if there was a viable
28 October 2021 market opportunity, given that there was no legal market yet.
It's this change in direction that gives Hunter pause. Should
Sustainable products and services can be challenging to he approve the request, or push the team back to the
develop and their value isn’t always obvious to customers. original, more conservative plan? Senior Lecturer Derek van
Companies must consider new ways of engaging with Bever and Steve Kaufman discuss balancing exploitation
customers to communicate the wider shifts to the value chain versus exploration inside this global brewing company in the
that make products truly sustainable. Overcoming common case, "Beyond Beer: Brewing Innovation at Molson Coors.".
obstacles in operating models and product development can
build more sustainable brands. While many consumer goods VoxEU
companies have made solid gains towards promoting Enhancing the contribution of
sustainability through such moves as reducing their carbon intangible assets to productivity
footprint and water usage, relatively few have made 05 October 2021
sustainability a major part of their brands.
Intangible assets are at the heart of firms’ competitiveness,
LSE Business Review but financing them is complex for many firms. This column
If you lie down with clones you will examines the extent to which financing barriers affect
stagnate your career productivity outcomes in intangible-intensive sectors, using
26 October 2021 sector- and firm-level data. The authors demonstrate the
existence of a ‘financing gap’ which depresses aggregate
We have a tendency to surround ourselves with and ask productivity growth and resilience, and propose a set of
advice from people just like ourselves, putting us at risk of policy options to make each source of external finance –
confirmation bias. When we want personal growth, Grace government support, equity financing, and bank credit –
Lordan writes that we must think again about who we spend more supportive of intangible investment.
our time with or seek advice from. One of the easiest ways to
grow quickly … Continued.

11

Innovation Briefing, November 2021

Technological Innovation

Artificial intelligence may yet rank among historic developments like the steam engine
and the automobile

Some innovation, like the development of new pharmaceuticals,

has an obvious and direct link to novel scientific research; other Related insight areas: Biotechnology, Virtual and Augmented
types may result from using existing technology in a new way, Reality, Digital Communications, Advanced Materials, Future of
or even from developments in unrelated fields. Many companies Computing, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, 3D Printing,
behind the sharing economy, for example, are essentially Internet of Things, Fourth Industrial Revolution,
offshoots of existing internet and smartphone technologies. Entrepreneurship
While emerging technologies like drones and 3D printing may
create new markets and disrupt existing value networks, radical
technical innovation in the form of so-called "general purpose"
technologies has the potential to disrupt entire groups of
industries; examples include the steam engine, the automobile,
the computer, the internet and, potentially, artificial intelligence -
all of which have had profound consequences for society.
Technological innovation encompasses more than research and
development. However, since research and development is key,
many policy-makers have been keen to focus on ways in which
it can be improved. Common areas of focus include national
systems for research funding, systems for awarding and
protecting patents (which are sometimes state-subsidized), the
improvement of translating university research into value for the
private sector; and tax incentives for innovative firms (such as
R&D tax credits, or special tax regimes for revenue derived from
intellectual property).

R&D tends to be heavily concentrated. The Organization for

Economic Co-Operation and Development’s Science,
Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2017 reported that the 50
largest R&D performers account for 40% of all business R&D
efforts in Canada and the US, and for more than half of such
efforts in Germany and Japan. In addition, according to the
report, the headquarters of the top 2,000 R&D corporations
worldwide are concentrated mostly in the US, China, and
Japan; about 70% of these firms’ total R&D spending is
concentrated within just 200 firms. Organizations undertaking
technical research may not have the expertise or the desire to
bring new products to market, so innovation often entails
transferring knowledge and technology from universities and
research groups to other entities - often in conjunction with the
licensing of intellectual property. An alternative route to market,
which may be preferable where no suitable organization already
exists or where there is an opportunity to capture more value, is
to form a startup or spinoff. In order to facilitate technological
innovation in specific industries, some countries have
established intermediary institutions, like Germany’s Fraunhofer
Society institutes and the United Kingdom’s Catapult Centres.

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Innovation Briefing, November 2021

 Latest knowledge

SpringerOpen MIT Sloan Management Review

Impact of self-perceptions, social Embrace Delegation as a Skill to
norms, and social capital on nascent Strengthen Remote Teams
entrepreneurs: a comparative analysis 19 October 2021
by level of economic development in
Latin American countries In our ever-growing remote work culture, teams are
increasingly vulnerable to virtual distance . Its three
30 October 2021
dimensions — physical, operational, and affinity distance —
The impact of individual psychological and social conditions play critical roles in how well teams work together in a virtual
on participation in entrepreneurship has been widely studied. environment and, particularly, in how managers delegate.
However, little is known about these variables’ comparative Physical distance relates to the geographic distance between
influence on the development of nascent ventures in workers, while operational distance characterizes
countries with different levels of gross domestic product per organizational processes that have the potential to facilitate or
capita. This research compares the effects of self- impede team collaboration.
perceptions, perceived subjective norms, and first-hand
Institut Montaigne
connections with entrepreneurs on participation in nascent
entrepreneurs in Latin America. Logistic regressions are
Innovation: France's Got Talent
performed and the resulting coefficient magnitudes and 07 October 2021
pseudo-R2 values compared for the populations of 11
During the 2010s, France pursued a catch-up
countries in this region.
strategy to bolster innovation through an unprecedented
Scientific American mobilization of public funds, mainly focusing on
Should Big Tech’s Plan for a entrepreneurship. In 2012, the creation of the Public
Investment Bank (Bpifrance) brought together various public
Metaverse Scare Us?
funds to support research and investment. Thanks to its
27 October 2021
capacity to provide grants, material and real estate
"Metaverse,” a concept being floated by Facebook’s Mark investments, or equity, Bpifrance became the central player
Zuckerberg and other tech moguls. It calls for a much more in start-up financing. Its resources have almost doubled in 7
immersive experience for consumers of social media, games years, going from €17.3 billion in 2013 to nearly €30 billion in
and other digital technologies. 2020.

Brookings Project Syndicate

How the U.S. can compete with China The Strange Death of Conservative
on digital justice technology America
25 October 2021 01 October 2021

China is exporting digital authoritarianism around the world, American conservatives once sought to ride the waves of
yet the debate over how to best counter its efforts to export markets and innovation toward ever-greater wealth and
surveillance tools has largely focused on telecommunication prosperity, but now they cower in fear. And, as the trajectory
technologies, like those central to the human rights abuses of today's Republican Party shows, that makes them a threat
against the Uyghur population in Xinjiang. In fact, investing in to democracy.
telecommunications infrastructure is only one aspect of the
way in which the Chinese government is using digital
technologies to centralize power. Over the last decade,
China has rapidly digitized its justice system, such as by
using blockchain to manage evidence and opening virtual
courts .

13

Innovation Briefing, November 2021

References

1. Government Innovation 5. Technological Innovation

Managing Technology in Finance: Global Approaches for the Digital Age, Impact of self-perceptions, social norms, and social capital on nascent
International Monetary Fund (IMF), www.youtube.com entrepreneurs: a comparative analysis by level of economic development
Facebook is now 'Meta.' This is what 'metaverse' could mean, World in Latin American countries, SpringerOpen, innovation-
entrepreneurship.springeropen.com
Economic Forum, www.weforum.org
Should Big Tech’s Plan for a Metaverse Scare Us?, Scientific American,
Budget 2021: what it means for British business, Raconteur,
www.scientificamerican.com
www.raconteur.net
How the U.S. can compete with China on digital justice technology,
How digital transformation can build more resilient businesses, World
Brookings, www.brookings.edu
Economic Forum, www.weforum.org
Embrace Delegation as a Skill to Strengthen Remote Teams, MIT Sloan
Igniting Innovation-Based Growth in Africa, BCG, www.bcg.com
Management Review, sloanreview.mit.edu
How to build digital public infrastructure: 7 lessons from Estonia, World Innovation: France's Got Talent, Institut Montaigne,
Economic Forum, www.weforum.org www.institutmontaigne.org
The metachallenges of the metaverse, Brookings, www.brookings.edu The Strange Death of Conservative America, Project Syndicate,
www.project-syndicate.org
2. Innovation for Social Benefit
Acknowledgements
The macroeconomic footprint of the Elons, VoxEU, voxeu.org
Data shows effects of COVID-19 and climate change on citizens’ Cover and selected images throughout supplied by Reuters.
perceptions of how ‘smart’ their cities are, IMD Business School, Some URLs have been shortened for readability. Please follow the URL
www.imd.org given to visit the source of the article. A full URL can be provided on
G20/OECD-INFE Report on Supporting Financial Resilience and request.
Transformation through Digital Financial Literacy , OECD, www.oecd.org
Is the Great Resignation Giving Rise to the Entrepreneur?, Wharton
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Labour Mobility with Vocational Skill: Australian Demand and Pacific
Supply, Center for Global Development, www.cgdev.org

3. Innovation Systems

Research: How Management Practices Impact M&A Outcomes, Harvard

Business Review, hbr.org
Catalyzing Responsible Digital Payments in the North East Region of
India, Better Than Cash Alliance, www.betterthancash.org
Pongamia: A Possible Option for Degraded Land Restoration and
Bioenergy Production in Indonesia, Center for International Forestry
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Effectiveness of subsidy applications for small businesses, VoxEU,
voxeu.org
Artificial intelligence helps to find new natural substances, Science Daily,
www.sciencedaily.com
Nobel-winning ‘natural experiments’ approach made economics more
robust, Nature, www.nature.com

4. Business Model Innovation

The Role of the Global Value Chain in Improving Trade and the
Sustainable Competitive Advantage: Evidence From China’s
Manufacturing Industry, Frontiers, www.frontiersin.org
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Beverages Business?, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge,
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Enhancing the contribution of intangible assets to productivity, VoxEU,
voxeu.org

14

Innovation Briefing, November 2021

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