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Silicon Valley Nation

Silicon Valley Nation: Which are the most-innovative countries?

Brian Fuller

1/23/2013 2:01 PM EST

bf sv nation global innovation barometer SAN FRANCISCO--The usual suspects, is the answer to that headline question (more on this later). But more telling from a new global innovation survey is how confused executives worldwide can be when asked about a number of important business-innovation drivers.

That's the take-away from the third Global Innovation Barometer, backed by GE. In GE's parlance, that confusion is "innovation vertigo... an uneasiness with the changing dynamics of today’s business landscape and uncertainty over the best path forward."

For instance, executives respond favorably in the survey to questions about global collaboration and open markets but they're also keen to exploit the advantages of their country's protectionist policies, according to the survey.

Seventy-one percent of executives reported that their government should push domestic innovation rather than imported, while 71 percent said their governments should open markets further and promote imported innovation and investment.

Paradoxically, there was a 53 percent overlap between these two opposing views, according to the report. Mexico (76 percent favoring) and Turkey (54 percent) favor more domestic protection. Then again Mexico (62 percent) leads countries favoring open market as well, followed by India (49 percent).
 

And nearly one in three believes that "by creating more competition among businesses and making some products and services obsolete, innovation has a negative impact" on their economy. Turkey (66 percent) and India (53 percent) are the most-worried; Germany (14 percent) and Canada (15 percent) are the least.

Author, educator and technologist Vivek Wadwha, writing about the survey in the Washington Post, said, "It’s clear to me from the GE study that companies may have become more fearful of the future, but are really confused about what lies ahead and what they and governments should do."




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