Configuration of Conditions Leading to High National Innovation Competitiveness: A Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis Approach

Abstract

Under the conditions of economic integration and globalization, the importance of national innovation competitiveness is rapidly increasing. In order to study what combination of conditions can generate higher national innovation competitiveness, this study proposes an improved integrated framework for national innovation competitiveness and it examines the allocation conditions that affect the innovation competitiveness of countries with different income levels using data from the Global Competitiveness Report 2019. This research finds that, first, the means of achieving high innovation competitiveness output are more diversified for high-income and upper-middle-income countries, with countries at these two economic levels achieving high innovation competitiveness output in three scenarios. Second, lower-middle-income countries have a more homogeneous configuration for achieving high innovation competitiveness outputs, with only one scenario, which still holds after a series of robustness tests. Third, for high-income countries, commercialization is a key element affecting their innovation competitiveness enhancement. The study not only bridges the gap between existing theories and research methods but also provides a useful reference for countries at different levels of economic development to improve their innovation competitiveness.