International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume IX, Issue VII, July 2022 | ISSN 2321–2705
National Innovation System and Economic Development in Nigeria
Mr. Jonathan Gimmy Leo
Innovation and Technology Policy Department,
Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER),
Ibadan, Oyo State. Nigeria
Abstract: The paper analyzed the National Innovation System (NIS) and economic development in developing countries like Nigeria. The objectives of the paper were to examine the nature of innovation systems in Nigeria. It also investigates the effects of NIS on economic growth and development in Nigeria. The review of literature suggests that NIS is more than just technological innovations, it includes the interrelationships between firms, governmental institutions, NGOs, and international institutions who engage in one form of R&D activity or the other in a country. The paper employed both descriptive statistics and generalized linear models (GLM) to explain the NIS and economic development in Nigeria. The results from the descriptive analysis revealed that the nature of the Nigerian innovation system is weak and still evolving. It reveals that low performance and high variations in NIS indicators such as industrial design applications, patent right applications, trademark applications, methodology assessment of statistical capacity, high technology exports, ICT goods exports, ICT goods imports and ICT services exports, and agricultural raw materials exports and imports in Nigeria. The regression results also revealed that NIS (R&D expenditures) is a significant positive determinant of economic growth and development in Nigeria. The paper also showed that human capital, industrial production, stock market capitalization, trade openness, foreign direct investment, and exchange rate regimes are significant determinants of economic growth and development in the NIS in Nigeria. Projecting economic growth and development to higher levels and achieving the projections remains the main objective of government policies in Nigeria.
Key Words: Innovation System, Institutions, Firm Performance, Growth & Development, Nigeria
JEL Classification: O10, O30, O33, Q01, Q55
I.INTRODUCTION
Economists in the past had explained the process of achieving economic growth from the perspective of the National Innovation System (NIS). Lundvall, et al., (2002) traced the origin of innovation systems to Adam Smith’s work on Wealth of Nations. Joseph Schumpeter’s principle of creative destruction envisaged an innovation system in which new production units or products replaces the old ones in the economy. Growth was viewed in this perspective until 1956 when Robert Solow posited that economic growth can be achieved through technological innovation. The new growth theory by Paul Romer in 1990 further advanced the