Innovation drives long-term economic growth. This book examines the role of innovation in developing countries, with a focus on Africa.

Leading international scholars provide a timely reconsideration of how and why entrepreneurship matters for economic development, particularly in emerging and developing economies. The book critically dissects the evolving relationship between entrepreneurs and the state.

Provides an agenda for future work on activities to improve understanding of innovation strategies in the medium and short term.

Digital technologies maintain an important tool in today’s business economy. As the economy continues to change, businesses seek out solutions in order to enhance and develop their organization. Business Innovation, Development, and Advancement in the Digital Economy highlights the competitive advantages on the emerging digital economy. Bringing together the classic economy theory and the developments of new technology, this book provides research on current innovations in the digital economy. It is vital resource for practitioners, researchers as well as graduate and undergraduate students.

Scaling Impact introduces a new and practical approach to scaling the positive impacts of research and innovation. Inspired by leading scientific and entrepreneurial innovators from across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East, this book presents a synthesis of unrivalled diversity and grounded ingenuity. The result is a different perspective on how to achieve impact that matters, and an important challenge to the predominant more-is-better paradigm of scaling. For organisations and individuals working to change the world for the better, scaling impact is a common goal and a well-founded aim. The world is changing rapidly, and seemingly intractable problems like environmental degradation or accelerating inequality press us to do better for each other and our environment as a global community. Challenges like these appear to demand a significant scale of action, and here the authors argue that a more creative and critical approach to scaling is both possible and essential. To encourage uptake and co-development, the authors present actionable principles that can help organisations and innovators design, manage, and evaluate scaling strategies. Scaling Impact is essential reading for development and innovation practitioners and professionals, but also for researchers, students, evaluators, and policymakers with a desire to spark meaningful change.

Technology, Growth, and Development uniquely presents the complexities of technical and institutional change on the foundation of modern growth theory. The author shows how the rates and directions of technical change are induced by changes in competitive funding and institutional innovations in the modern research university and industrial laboratory. In turn, technical change itself becomes a powerful source of institutional change. Organized by the author in four parts, the first-Productivity and Economic Growth-gives specific reasons for the slowing of productivity growth in the United States and other leading industrial countries during the last quarter of the twentieth century. In Part II-Sources of Technical Change-the author examines a host of economic factors that influence invention and innovation; the rate and direction of institutional change; and the adoption, diffusion, and transfer of technology. In Part III-Technical Innovation and Industrial Change-he traces the sources and impact of technical change in five strategically important industries: agriculture, electric power, chemical, computer, and biotechnology. The final section, Part IV-Technology Policy-evaluates the role of technical change in international competition, the role of science and technology in environmental policy, and the evolution of U.S. science and technology policy. Technology, Growth, and Development makes few mathematical demands on students, and will be used in courses within economics departments as well as management and public affairs. In addition, it will be required reading for professional economists, managers, and policy analysts at all levels.

This book uncovers the many ways in which innovations and innovation system development policies have become crucial to development policy formation across Africa. As new instruments, actors and tools emerge in development cooperation, the role of innovation in the societal development of developing countries needs to be addressed fully. This book delves into subjects as diverse as the changing development policies between the Global North and South, the role of innovation in international aid and development policies, the role of public, private and non-governmental sectors, universities and other development actors, and the potential for inclusive innovation in local communities. In particular, the book asks who benefits from innovation-focussed development policies, and if and how practical innovation instruments include the global poor. Written in an accessible and engaging style, the book includes a range of discussion questions and further reading suggestions to suit a range of readers, from students right through to policy makers and practitioners, or anyone else looking for an introduction to innovation policies and development in Africa.