The Global Innovation Index 2012

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THE GLOBAL INNOVATION INDEX 2012 1: The Global Innovation Index 2012
proactive at adopting the latest
technologies (1st on knowledge
absorption). This year, in addition,
Singapore reaches 3rd place on the
Knowledge and technological outputs
pillar, up from position 15 in
2011, with clear improvements on
two main indicators: growth rate of
labour productivity (2nd) and FDI
net outflows (4th). It also tops the
rankings at position 1 in 10 indicators:
government effectiveness, cost
of redundancy dismissal, government’s
online service, applied tariff
rate, imports and exports of goods
and services, employment in knowledge-intensive
services, royalty and
license fees payments, high-tech
exports, and ICT and organizational
models creation.
Finland reaches 4th position
this year, up one position from
5th in 2011. Finland has strengths
across the board, with a particularly
strong institutional framework
(6th) and a skilled labour force (1st
in the EU, 3rd globally) engaged in
research and patenting. Finland tops
the rankings in political environment
and five indicators, notably the
state of cluster development, royalty
and license fees receipts, and computer
and communications service
exports. Finland’s relative weakness
is in Market sophistication, where it
ranks 26th.
The United Kingdom (UK)
occupies the 5th rank in 2012.
Although its performance has
improved since last year, when it
ranked 10th, the UK benefitted
to a large extent from adjustments
made to the GII framework (refer to
Annex 2). It gained 11 positions in
Infrastructure because of its excellent
10th position in ecological sustainability
(a pillar introduced this
year) and it tops the rankings in three
indicators that are also new this year:
cost of redundancy dismissal, ease of
getting credit, and generic top-level
domains (TLDs). It also has strong
institutions and sophisticated financial
markets (ranking 1st on credit
and 3rd on investment). Its excellent
8th position in Knowledge and
technology outputs is the result of a
good balance between the creation
of knowledge through patenting
and scientific and technical research
(13th), the economic impact of these
activities in the domestic economy
(11th, although labour productivity
has still not fully recovered from the
crisis), and diffusion abroad of the
latest technologies (16th). While it
ranks 3rd in Market sophistication,
its 57th rank in trade and competition
is of concern.
The Netherlands ranks 6th, up
from 9th in 2011, and with a clear
relative advantage in outputs, where
it is ranked 3rd. The country does
less well in inputs, however, achieving
a 15th position resulting in a
9th place in innovation efficiency.
The Netherlands has made particularly
strong use of ICT, with top
10 rankings in press freedom, ICT
access, government’s online service,
online e-participation, computer
software spending, and all four indicators
included in online creativity,
a sub-pillar introduced this year to
Creative outputs: generic top-level
domains (gTLDs), country-code
top-level domains (ccTLDs), edits
on Wikipedia, and video uploads
on YouTube. One area where there
is room for improvement is Human
capital and research (34th), and more
specifically a 66th rank in tertiary
education. In spite of a relatively
good level of enrolment (ranked
24th, at 62.7%), its scores in the
remaining indicators are rather low:
14.0% of graduates in science and
engineering (83rd), 3.8% of inbound
mobility (37th), and a 1.1% of gross
tertiary outbound enrolment (69th).
Denmark ranks 7th, down from
6th in 2011. Its institutions are
assessed as the most transparent and
business friendly in the world (1st). A
prepared and well-funded research
community (the country ranks 5th
on R&D) leads to high degrees of
patenting via the PCT and of publishing
in scientific and technical
journals. An area that deserves
attention is its 38th position in tertiary
education, a poor result pointing
up several areas of concern:
with only 19.6% of tertiary graduates
in science and engineering and
a gross tertiary outbound enrolment
of 1.6%, Denmark ranks 57th and
55th globally. With a high level of
ICT use (6th), it is one of the leading
economies in terms of registrations
of Internet TLDs (6th for generic
and 3rd for country-code TLDs).
One alarming sign, however, is that
Denmark is one of the 15 economies
in the sample with scores going
down on all four indices.
Hong Kong (China) is ranked
8th, a drop of four places from its 4th
position in 2011. Its main strength is
still on the input side (2nd). Its rank
in innovation outputs (25th) is lower
than it was in 2011 because of a relatively
low ranking in Knowledge and
technology outputs (34th), which
echoes a relatively low ranking in
Human capital and research (26th).
In all remaining Input pillars, Hong
Kong (China) is ranked among the
top 10, with a record of 14 indicators
in the very top positions in a range
of domains, but notably in a series
of indicators showing an extremely
dynamic economy: ICT access, efficiency
in energy use, market capitalization,
value of stocks traded,
imports and exports of goods and
services, high-tech imports, FDI net
inflows and outflows, and new businesses
creation.
Ireland is ranked 9th, up four
positions from 13th place in 2011.
Ireland has been particularly good at
prioritizing those areas that convert