BOOK TIP | Policy development for innovation capacity

Sweden and the rest of Europe face many major challenges ahead, including demographic, geopolitical, technological and climate-related ones. According to Professors Pontus Braunerhjelm and Magnus Henrekson, ensuring continued growth and prosperity requires more technological development and new ways of dealing with complex issues. And they believe that innovation and entrepreneurship are key elements to achieve this. In the book Unleashing Society’s Innovative Capacity – An Integrated Policy Framework (free to download) they present an innovation policy framework.

The authors argue that political investment in knowledge, such as research and development and education, is not enough. Policies are also needed to turn knowledge into innovations and thus create benefits for society. To achieve this, they propose ten measures that form the innovation policy framework. Of these, four relate to strengthening the knowledge base. Two of these are that mechanisms are needed to ensure that universities and colleges apply effective pedagogical methods in their work with entrepreneurship and that government funding of research should be based more on qualitative objectives. The other six measures – those that turn knowledge into innovation – include more effective regulation, the functioning of market competition and a tax system that encourages risk-taking and innovation.