Approach to the identification of an alternative technological innovation index

Abstract

There is a strong interest in identifying and designing standardized indicators to measure and visualize the progress made by countries in terms of science, technology, and innovation with the purpose of defining strategies for the countries to increase their competitiveness. The main purpose of this study was to present a first approach to the identification of an alternative index of technological innovation based on the grouping of indicators reported by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as inputs and outputs sub-indexes. The identified index made it possible to generate a ranking (A) of the positions of 37 countries and three groups of countries using longitudinal data analysis. The method used for validating the alternative technological innovation index was based on the calculation of Person’s correlations between our A ranking and the World Economic Forum ranking, the Global Competitiveness Index ranking, and the Subindex Innovation and Sophistication Factors ranking, in addition to the ranking presented in the Global Innovation Index by the World Intellectual Property Organization; high correlations validated our index and ranking.