Absorbing global innovations: Access, anchor, diffuse
Published:
October 2008
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Absorbing Global Innovations policy briefing (PDF)
Description
Globalisation is changing. New economies and centres for innovation are emerging and capital, ideas, goods and people are moving more freely between them.
The more connected a place is, the more successful it can become, enabling it to tap into new sources of innovation. However, this requires the ability not only to create new knowledge, but also to access, absorb, spread and apply ideas and concepts generated elsewhere.
NESTA has developed a model to capture how successfully places achieve this. This ‘absorptive capacity' implies a different understanding of innovation; one that is sensitive to a place's unique features. Some UK regions, while weaker at producing new knowledge, are highly successful at exploiting ideas generated elsewhere.
One-size-fits-all innovation strategies are unlikely to match a locality's unique strengths, and innovation policy focused only on the production of new knowledge will miss an important source of competitive advantage.
Interregional innovation strategies should also be considered where these would match the shape of economic and social realities.