Abu Dhabi Innovation Framework
Pillars
Emirate resource
optimisation
Complete international and domestic
security
A significant and ongoing contribution
to the federation of
the UAE
Maintenance of Abu Dhabi's values,
culture and heritage
Premium education, healthcare,
and infrastructure
assets
Continuation of strong and
diverse international relationships
Create a confident, secure society, andBuild a sustainable, open and globally competitive economy
The creation of a
sustainable knowledge‐
based economy
The creation of a
sustainable knowledge‐
based economy
A large empowered
private sector
An optimal transparent regulatory
environment
Abu Dhabi Vision
The development of a knowledge based economy (KBE) is one of the five focus areas for the whole of Government of Abu Dhabi
Elements of greater effortElements of greater effort DefinitionDefinition
Develop and economy where the primary source of value creation is the origination, use, and sharing of knowledge regardless of sector
Develop the capabilities of the population ‐ through education and life long training ‐ to be able to lead the future society and economy
Manage the demographic flow so that Emirati character remains a defining factor of Abu Dhabi, with security and social harmony
Develop a framework in which the environment and its health is taken into account and balanced with the needs of the economy, society, and the needs of urbanisation and growth
Develop a large, independent private sector operating in open markets alongside a smaller government sector that designs and implements efficient and transparent regulatory frameworks
Building a sustainable, knowledge‐based economy
Managing environmental sustainability
Managing the demographic mix of the Emirate
Further developing the private sector, with optimal transparent regulation
Building human capital
World Bank Knowledge Economy IndexTop 5 countries & UAE
World Bank Knowledge Economy IndexTop 5 countries & UAE
Economic Incentive and Institutional Regime
Economic Incentive and Institutional Regime InnovationInnovation EducationEducation ICTICT
6.7
9.3
9.3
9.4
9.5
9.6Denmark
Sweden
Finland
Netherlands
Norway
UAE
f + + +
Source: The World Bank Knowledge Assessment Methodology and Knowledge Economy Index - 2008
9.7
9.2
9.5
9.2
9.3
7.0
9.6
9.8
9.7
9.5
9.1
6.7
9.8
9.4
9.8
9.3
9.6
4.8
9.3
9.7
8.6
9.4
9.2
8.242
1
2
3
4
5
# KEI ranking (out of 134)
There are four major drivers of KBE - innovation is one important factor
Innovation –Updated Policy Agenda has addressed the need to develop specific innovation policies
6
• Enhancing skills and capabilities of the citizens.
• Improving tertiary enrolment.• Enhancing technical and vocational training.
Providing attractive incentives to support a knowledge-based economy.
Continue to ensure access to high-quality ICT infrastructure
• Embed a culture of customer-service excellence through the Government Excellence Framework.
• Seek to build a culture of innovation and continuous learning in the public service.
• Extend or establish knowledge networks within industry sectors.
• Developing links with leading networks of experts in relevant sectors
• Developing an innovation strategy including clustering.
Policy Areas Mentioned in the Policy Agenda Innovation Drivers
Innovation Systems for Resource-Rich Economies (NREs):
International Lessons for the Abu Dhabi Context
Project undertaken for theGeneral Secretariat of the Executive Council, Abu Dhabi
Thomas Andersson, Elias Carayannis, Piero Formica, Sara Johansson de Silva
• Production process: multidimensional, spanning from extraction, exploration, manufacturing, and services
• High purchasing of innovative technologies rather than in-house R&D
• Resource innovation influenced by degree of collaboration with suppliers, customers, competitors, governments …
• Tendency for innovation to focus on processes and distribution of low-to-medium goods and services rather than high-value products and services
• Bulk of innovation activities in large extensively internationalized firms
Natural Resource-based Economies
Innovation output: undiversified economy(High‐tech exports as % of GDP)
S&T outputs
Scientific and journal articles, per million people
Kuw
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200
400
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Kuw
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Om
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020406080
100
S&T outputs
Patents Granted by USPTO, per million people
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20
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120
140
160
180
200
Kuw
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Bahr
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UAE
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
ICT access - not a problemInternet users per 1000 people
Nor
way
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eden
New
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Aus
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0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
Human capital (gross tertiary enrollment, %)
• Economic diversification
• The turnover of the expatriate “creative class”
• Ties among talented individuals belonging to different organizations
• Implementation of a policy for wellbeing, environmental and sustainable economy and society
• An environment conducive to the development of opportunity-based entrepreneurship
• R&D and technical innovation
• Mobilization of human resources and investments to match opportunities for economic and business development
• Governance and collaboration to underpin consistency in regard to innovation
Eight Gaps
Seed and Venture Capital
Investment Law
15
The Innovation Gap
MindsetResearch Culture
Measurement, indicator issues, CIS
••
• The Community Innovation Surveys (CIS) are a series of harmonised surveys initially executed by national statistical offices throughout the European Union and in Norway and Iceland, but later expanded to many countries beyond Europe.
• The CIS consists of a core set questions that are harmonised across all countries and diversified questions specific to different countries.
• The CIS takes a sample from all business establishments in a country, stratifying the sample by sector, establishment size and possibly region. The sample is selected to be representative in terms of sector and size of the general population of firms in an economy.
• Definitions are based on the OECD Oslo Manual for measuring innovation activities.
• For the purpose of the survey, innovation, is defined as new or significantly improved goods or services and/or the processes used to produce or supply all goods or services. .These may be new to the business or new to the market; new to the country or new to international markets.
Set of pilot data survey respondents
Sector
Size of Enterprise
Total
Large Medium Small
Services 59 52 32 143 (33%)
Commerce/Trade 34 37 26 97 (22%)
Construction 34 21 12 67 (15%)
Manufacturing 48 21 9 78 (18%)
Transport 18 6 5 29 (7%)
Financial Services11 5 4 20 (5%)
Total 204 141 88 433
Types of innovations
Size of the innovators
Sectors of innovation
Sector of innovation by type of innovation
Who is the customer for innovation?
Most innovation activities happen in the B2B sector
Market orientation
Novelty of innovation and market orientation
Novelty and Market orientation by sector
Innovation performance and ownership
Innovative behavoir of Abu Dhabi or UAE subsidiaries and subsidiaries of US, European and Asian firms
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Product or process innovation Products new to international markets Cooperation
% o
f all
firm
s in
one
gro
up
Abu Dhabi or UAE subsidiariesSubsidiaries of US, European or Asian firms
But how do Abu Dhabi firms innovate?
AD firms invest in various forms of innovation fostering activities
Source: IKED/CIS Pilot Data Survey , Statistics Center – Abu Dhabi(2009), preliminary
They collaborate with others
Collaboration by sector
AD firms can still benefit from more collaboration
Share of co-operating firms, only firms with more than 250 employees
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Finl
and
Cyp
rus
Slov
enia
Lith
uani
a
Belg
ium
Pola
nd
Gre
ece
Net
herla
nds
Aust
ria
Hun
gary
Cze
ch R
epub
lic
Latv
ia
Swed
en
Esto
nia
Slov
akia
Cro
atia
Den
mar
k
Irela
nd
Nor
way
Portu
gal
Spai
n
Uni
ted
King
dom
Luxe
mbo
urg
Ger
man
y
Mal
ta
Abu
Dha
bi
Italy
Turk
ey
Bulg
aria
Rom
ania
Perc
enta
ge o
f all
inno
vatin
g fir
ms
Source: IKED/CIS Pilot Data Survey , Statistics Center – Abu Dhabi(2009), preliminary
AD firms also invest in R&D
Continous and occasional R&D activitiy in international comparison, firms with more than 250 employees
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Belg
ium
Net
herla
nds
Ger
man
y
Slov
enia
Aust
ria
Spai
n
Cze
ch R
epub
lic
Mal
ta
Abu
Dha
bi
Portu
gal
Slov
akia
Gre
ece
Cyp
rus
Hun
gary
Lith
uani
a
Turk
ey
Esto
nia
Rom
ania
Cro
atia
Pola
nd
Bulg
aria
perc
enta
ge o
f all
inno
vativ
e fir
ms
occasional R&D activitycontinuously R&D activity
Source: IKED/CIS Pilot Data Survey , Statistics Center – Abu Dhabi(2009), preliminary
R&D investment is on par with many advanced economies in Europe
Summary of main findings• Firms in the Abu Dhabi economy generate a considerable
level of innovation via the supply‐chains.
• Very small and very large firms are the most innovation active.
• Innovation active firms tend to be concentrated in three sectors: oil & gas, manufacturing, and business services.
• The oil & gas sector is the most innovative on international scale.
• These three sectors are also the most important markets and partners for innovation.
• Abu Dhabi firms make varied investments in innovation fostering activities, particularly R&D and the acquisition of new technology.
First insights into what is needed...
• Expanding innovation activities beyond the three dominant sectors.
• Increasing the engagement of middle‐size enterprises in innovation activities.
• Broadening and deepening the scope and extent of partnerships and collaborations locally.
• Fostering the demand for innovation beyond the oil & gas industry.
• Increasing the exposure of AD firms to international markets.
Index methodology
• Individual composite indices based on a mean average of normalised/standardised values• The mean and standard deviations are calculated for each metric (s)• For each metric (s), the mean (m) is subtracted and divided by the standard deviation (sd), i.e. C = (s‐m)/sd • Result is a series of index scores with a mean value of zero, i.e. a score above zero equates to an above average performance, and vice‐versa • The mean average is calculated for each metric and weighted together to create the overall composite score
Interwoven knowledge linkages
Source: Mahroum et al. (2008)
Knowledge Access Index is based on the mean average of the standardised values for the
following metrics
••Advanced Producer Service Network Connectivity
•Student outward mobility
•Internet usage (per 100 persons)
•Exports of High‐Tech products as % of GDP
Index of K now ledge Access
-0.50-0.40
-0.30-0.20-0.10
0.000.100.20
0.300.40
Sweden
Norway
Canada
Austra
lia
Finlan
dNew Z
ealan
dAbu
Dha
bi
Pilot survey data results
Source: IKED (2010), forthcoming, preliminary results
The Knowledge Anchoring Index is based on the mean average of the standardised values for
the following metrics:
•FDI/GDP
•Share of Highly Skilled Foreign population/Total population
Pilot survey data results
Index of Know ledge Anchoring
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
Canada AbuDhabi
Australia Finland NewZealand
Sweden Norway
Source: IKED (2010), forthcoming, preliminary results
The Knowledge Diffusion Index is based on the mean average of the standardised values for the
following metrics:
•Share of persons with at least tertiary education in the LF•Proportion of businesses that have cooperated on innovation (CIS)•Innovation new to firms (CIS)•Imports of high‐tech products (% of total imports)
Pilot survey data results
Index of Knowledge Diffusion
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Sweden Australia NewZealand
Finland Norway AbuDhabi
Canada
Source: IKED (2010), forthcoming, preliminary results
Knowledge Exploitation Index is based on the mean average of the standardised value of
• The proportion of Innovation Active Enterprises
Pilot survey data results
Index of K now ledge Exploitation
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
Canada Norway Finland Aus tralia Sweden AbuDhabi
NewZealand
Source: IKED (2010), forthcoming, preliminary results
Components of Innovation Index
Composite Indices
Knowledge Access
Knowledge Anchoring
Knowledge Diffusion
Knowledge Exploitation
Overall Knowledge Index
Knowledge Index Scores
Components of Innovation Index
Composite Indices
Knowledge Access (-)
Knowledge Anchoring (+)
Knowledge Diffusion (-)
Knowledge Exploitation (-)
Overall Knowledge Index (-)
Knowledge Index Scores
Summary of key findings
• AD is doing well in attracting and retaining (anchoring) innovation actors (skills, foreign firms and investments.
• AD lags other advanced NREs in gaining access to international innovation actors, be it firms, research centers, advanced markets.
• AD lags other NREs in the diffusion of innovation. This means there isn’t sufficient interaction and partnering happening among local innovation actors.
• AD is behind in its ability to exploit acquired knowledge to introduce novel goods and services (in comparison with the other advanced NREs).