Barriers to Innovation Diffusion in OECD Regions: A Self-assessment Toolkit

The self-assessment toolkit consists of two components. The first is a dashboard of innovation diffusion indicators that allows assembling regional innovation profiles to help quantify the strengths and weaknesses of regions along different framework conditions and innovation diffusion channels (relative to other OECD regions and other EU-27 regions). The second component is a questionnaire to survey the views of local stakeholders on the strengths and weaknesses of the regional innovation system. The questionnaire complements the quantitative indicators by focusing on links between the different actors and policies in the regional innovation (diffusion) system.

The dashboard comprises nearly 140 indicators that capture regional framework conditions, innovation diffusion channels and innovation diffusion outcomes for large (TL2) OECD regions. An accompanying report provides a detailed overview and rationale for the selected indicators. The dashboard provides information for the most recent year with available data (as of December 2022) to develop regional innovation diffusion profiles that can be compared across OECD regions.

The underlying data can be downloaded here: https://www.oecd.org/cfe/Excel Database-Innov-Indicators - Copy.zip

The OECD designed a survey that can be used to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the regional innovation diffusion system by collecting the views of local stakeholders. The survey includes questions on the state of innovation diffusion in the region and on the functioning of innovation diffusion channels, intermediaries, and policies in support of innovation diffusion.

A template for the survey is available as an .lss file here , which is ready to be “Imported” into LimeSurvey, a free open source tool (https://www.limesurvey.org). The survey template can be edited and distributed by anyone who wishes to assess the perceptions of their region’s stakeholders about innovation diffusion. A PDF version of the questions are available here.

Innovation diffusion is a broad concept that encompasses both the process by which ideas underpinning product and business process innovations spread (innovation knowledge diffusion), and the adoption of such products, or business processes by other firms (innovation output diffusion).

To understand the bottlenecks for innovation diffusion in different regions the toolkit breaks the supporting environment down to three factors.

• The local and national framework conditions, which affect firms’ incentives and capacities to adopt innovations.
• The functioning of the innovation diffusion channels through which knowledge and its uptake flow.
• The presence and functioning of a variety of intermediaries that help companies build the capacity for innovation adoption, identify external resources, and share knowledge.

During the development stage, the OECD supported several regions and countries in implementing (earlier versions of) the innovation diffusion toolkit. The supporting background reports showcase how the dashboard and survey can be effectively used to identify barriers to innovation diffusion across regions.

• Czech Republic
• Bulgaria, North Central Region
• Blekinge, Sweden
• Latvia
• Northern and Western Region of Ireland

Latvia is itself a TL2 region. Its regional and country-level data can be visualised by choosing “Latvia” from the country drop-down menu in the Dashboard.

R&D spending and employment indicate the extent to which the public and private sectors invest in the production and diffusion of innovation. In the innovation diffusion typology, it is a measure of innovation assets in a region, one of the framework conditions.

Business sector R&D employment in Latvia is in the bottom 20% of all regions compared to OECD regions. In contrast, government R&D employment in Latvia is in the top 40% of all OECD regions. This suggests an important role for the public sector in creating innovation and channels for innovation diffusion in Latvia.

Patent measures reaffirm the important role of the public sector in Latvia. Patents can showcase both innovation channels and outcomes of innovation diffusion. For example, collaboration in patenting can be a channel through which businesses learn from academic institutions or each other. Patentable inventions are one outcome of innovation diffusion as it requires substantial knowledge about previous innovations. Overall patenting intensity (the number of patents filed per inhabitant) in Latvia is in the bottom 30% of OECD regions. This is consistent with Latvia’s relatively low levels of private sector R&D spending. However, Latvia compares favourably to other OECD regions on patenting activity in government and in universities where they rank among the top 10% compared to other OECD regions.