Reinforcing Innovation Effectiveness. A New Methodological Approach for Policy Evaluation

Abstract

Innovation is considered an important competitiveness factor for companies and a source of wealth for economies. Therefore it is an important subject of policy intervention and regional development. The understanding of what innovation is has evolved in the past decades away from a purely technological definition – of new products and processes introduced on the market, to a wider one including organizational and marketing aspects or incremental innovation in low tech production companies and more recently, innovation in services (European Commission, 2008). Today, innovation is present in the discourse of politicians and business leaders. They see innovation as a positive value and as a solution to solve social problems and company’s competitiveness, so organizations are encouraged to adopt innovative practices through incentives and innovation policies. The main purpose of this paper is to propose a new methodological approach for public policy supporting innovation evaluation in a territorial based analysis. A new methodology which intended to contribute to strengthen and reinforcing the innovation effectiveness in firms and territory development resulting from support of public mechanisms.