Is Technology the Basis of Long-Term National Competitive Advantage? Compare Differences in the Innovation Systems of Leading Economies, Industries and Firms.

The amount of patent filings for scientific and technological innovations is a relevant category in regards to producing the superpower index. The reason for this is because it is indicative of quaternary sector employment, which generally equates to higher income due to the high standard of research that can be gathered and then sold on to other countries at a high price. Additionally, a large number of patents enables a country to become dominant sellers of a product, therefore allowing them to be the main exporter, increasing the country’s cultural influence; this also allows a country to gain a large profit. The factor of population is significant here, as a large population may result in a large number of researchers, and therefore a large number of entrepreneurs, contributing to a countrys’ influence on global markets. The figure shows that the USA has the highest ranking in regards to this factor, highlighting its superpower status as the country has 391,000 patents and innovations compared to the lowest ranked country of Brazil, which only has 4,750.

The network of the international production created by means of direct foreign investments, in economic literature it is accepted to call the second economy. Development of economy of the majority of the countries is based on achievements of scientific and technical progress, use of scientific data. 70% of scientific information contain in the American databanks (About the USA). As even in Europe and Japan there are no equivalent databanks, still a long time their scientists, engineers and businessmen will continue to get knowledge generally from the American sources.

Had it not been for the American industrialization, we would not enjoy the technology we have in the year 2002. The reason we have this technology is that between those years a great change in the world’s history was made. People started to discover faster methods of producing goods, which increased their economy. However, this industrialization had no effects on society. Society then was still very poor in some areas, but later on in the future the United States becomes the richest and most powerful country in the world.

US and other developed countries have moved their production structures from agriculture to industry to services. Once reaching a peak, US employment has started to decline. The continued progress in manufacturing and productivity, income growth, and international outsourcing brought the US economy to a tough position in the post-industrial world: while manufacturing plant investment abroad has continued, many engineers in the US lost their positions. The decline in research contribution by US industry ”raises questions about implications for the future of US competitiveness in international markets and for the future existence of highly skilled jobs at home” (National Science Board, 2008).

National systems of innovation has been a helpful tool used by all countries. Innovation by itself has proven to be successful in modern day business with increasing profit margins but also in organisations and the world. University’s governments and companies all work together in building new innovative products and service that can benefit everyone as a whole. The National innovation system is a success as it allows you to see where innovations are thriving and where they are lacking. National Innovation systems is an effective way on where you sitting with the world in innovation and innovators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A recent study ranked the UK in the top three locations worldwide for eight scientific areas, including biological sciences, environmental research, and clinical, pre-clinical and health research. The UK is also renowned for the quality of its research and development (R&D), and persistently builds on its strengths in science and innovation. The country has traditionally been keen to encourage R&D in both the public and private sectors. However, the authorities face the unenviable challenge of striking a balance between keeping the distribution of indigenous technology profitable and maintaining a competitive advantage. Business legislation encourages commercial activity; however, traditional liberties are affecting changes to legislation The legislation that affects the business environment in the UK has been created and amended in such a way that the interests of investors are generally given priority. This is evident from the fact that domestic and foreign players have shown a continuous commitment to investing in the country. The majority of multinational corporations that are based outside of Europe but have a presence on the continent establish their European operations in the UK. However, the government faces the challenge of maintaining traditional liberality of the country 's society while at the

Is Research & Development leading to innovation, and does innovation leads to economic growth? In order to understand the extent to which the contribution of R&D is determined by national culture, it is firstly crucial to understand the relations between R&D, innovation and economic growth. It is widely agreed among theorists that R&D is the main pillar of a competitive and growing economy. Indeed, through R&D, nations develop new products able to produce growth, create jobs and increase the national welfare (Markovich, 2012). Innovation is directly linked with R&D and all innovative breakthroughs have occurred because of massive efforts and expenses in the R&D. Developing innovative products helps businesses/nations to have an edge over their competitors. Studies have also shown that when the level of R&D increases, the capital stock of a nation also increases (Griffith, 2000). Therefore, R&D leads to innovation and innovation leads to economic growth.

Historically, strategists have overestimated the strategic advantage of technology. Gray noted that Lieutenant General Rudolf von Caemmerer, a renowned German strategist during the early 20th Century, over-valued the impact of the telegraph, when in 1905, he wrote, “However much the enemy may have succeeded in placing himself between our armies, we can still amply communicate…over an arc of a hundred or two hundred or four hundred miles”. While the telegraph indeed helped mitigate the “tyranny of distance” between armies stretched across Europe, it also created a dangerous reliance that diminished focus on dealing with the real fog and friction of war. In the end, the German Army in 1914, relying violently on the telegraph, was unable

Product innovation is the fuel for America’s growth. Two Harvard economists, John McArthur and Jeffery Sachs, described its importance as follows: “Innovation is no mere vanity plate on the nation’s economic engine. It trumps capital accumulation and allocation of resources as the most important contributor to growth.” Innovative initiatives are a high risk game; failures widely outnumber successes. While enthusiasm, conviction and creativity should flourish in the hearts and minds of the innovation team, judgments must remain totally, even brutally, objective. But unconscious and conscious marketing dishonesty may make this easier said than done.

A top down focus in development is not unique to agricultural development, much of the research on Chinese innovation found the defining element of not only agricultural policy, but innovation policy as a state focused on mega-projects and SOE research arms at the expense of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). While Heilman et. al. agrees that this is the case in regards to national level programs such as the “863 program” for high-technology R&D, and the “973 program” for basic research, among others, less centralized programs remain under researched in the field. An effort to commercialize the Chinese R&D regime in the private sector as the Torch Program is one of those understudied initiatives.

India has put in place a patent regime that allows the grant of patents for both products and processes for all eligible inventions. The changes made in 1999, 2002 and 2005 have been ostensibly to comply with its WTO ob-ligations on intellectual property. How-ever, an analysis of the changes suggests that there were some in Indian industry and government who believed that stronger patent protection, even beyond what is required under India's international obligations, will attract local R&D as well as foreign direct investment.

This paper consists of literature review of previous researches conducted related to the effect of utility model on innovation and technological growth of South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, and Germany. I will discuss the following: how patent and utility model contributes uniquely to innovation and technological growth to countries in different economic growth phase, in terms of total factor productivity (TFP), detailed costs and benefits, and commonality of each type of intellectual property (IP) protection system, conduct case studies on China, South Korea, Japan, and Australia by comparing the trend of patent and utility model application to the level of TFP, discussions about the findings and a conclusion. Patents promote

Private domestic and private foreign firms make up the private sector. Private sector is the engine of growth. Improving the productivity of firms in the private sector involves improving productivity of the economy thus, the economic growth. The private sector can provide more jobs than the public sector therefore providing income for people. Government needs identify the constraints to firm productivity. In addition, there is a need to identify the factors which could enhance how domestic firms benefit from foreign firms and how foreign presence can improve skills and promote entrepreneurship activities. These factors could be due to the characteristic of the foreign firm, domestic firm or the country environment. Identifying these factors will facilitate designing policies to enhance technological spillovers to domestic firms. However, lack of sufficient data to identify these factors is a challenge to designing policies. In the last ten years, the World Bank has been able to provide data on firms in countries through the World Bank Enterprise Survey. These surveys

Thirdly, the production function of Welfens/Jasinski includes multiplier of scientific and technological progress, which depends on the overall macroeconomic situation and in no way connected with the inflows of FDI. At the same it is obvious that foreign investment primarily perform the function of transferring technological and managerial innovations to the economies of the recipient countries.If we take into consideration the institutional changes in the economy, then they should also reflect the effects related to the openness of the national economy to foreign investments from abroad.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................ 2 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................... 3 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY ................................................................................. 4 STATE INDUCED INCENTIVES FOR INNOVATION