Measuring Firm-Level Innovation Using Short Questionnaires : Evidence from an Experiment
Little is known about innovation in developing countries, partly because of the lack of comparable and reliable data. Collecting data on firm-level innovation is challenging because of the subjective definition of what determines an innovation, a p...
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/06/26438301/measuring-firm-level-innovation-using-short-questionnaires-evidence-experiment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24531 |
| Summary: | Little is known about innovation in
developing countries, partly because of the lack of
comparable and reliable data. Collecting data on firm-level
innovation is challenging because of the subjective
definition of what determines an innovation, a problem that
is exacerbated in developing countries where innovation is
likely to be more incremental and less radical. This paper
contributes to the literature by presenting the results of
an experiment aiming to identify the survey instrument that
better captures firm-level innovation in developing
countries. The paper shows that a small set of questions
included in a multi-topic, firm-level survey does not
provide an accurate picture of firm-level innovation and
tends to overestimate innovation rates. Issues related to
framing explain some of the unreliability of innovation
responses, while cognitive problems do not appear to play a
significant role. |
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