Toward Innovation-Driven Competitiveness Across African Countries: An Analysis of Efficiency of R&D Expenditures
Pawel Dobrzanski, Sebastian Bobowski, Elie Chrysostome, Emil Velinov, Jiri Strouhal
Keywords:
competitiveness, DEA methodology, relative efficiency, innovation
Abstract:
The main goal of this paper is to determine whether R&D funds are used efficiently in African
countries. The innovativeness of a country’s economy is nowadays one of the key factors
stimulating the economic growth and competitiveness. Becoming more innovative is important
in particular for developing countries, whose governments are developing national innovation
strategies (NIS) and assuming a steady increase in research and development spending. Efficient
innovation policies are creating conditions for enterprise development and the increase of
competitiveness of the country. A calculation of R&D spending efficiency for selected African
economies for the years 2009-2017 was carried out using Data Envelopment Analysis methodology,
which allows the evaluation of input-output efficiency. Public and private spending on R&D as
% of GDP was the selected inputs indicator. The model examines three output indicators: the
number of patent applications (per million inhabitants), high-technology exports (% of export),
and number of technical and scientific journal articles (per million inhabitants). Among the
analyzed countries, those on the efficiency frontier regarding the use of CRS methodology are
South Africa and Tunisia. According to VRS methodology, the most efficient nations are South
Africa, Tunisia, and Madagascar. The performed analysis has not confirmed our hypothesis
regarding the non-proportional relation between higher R&D spending and innovation outputs.
Considering limited innovation capacities across African countries, it appears to be reasonable
to increase R&D expenditures gradually to achieve better results on the path toward innovationdriven
growth and development.
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 Toward Innovation-Driven Competitiveness Across African Countries: An Analysis of Efficiency of R&D Expenditures [PDF file] [Filesize: 1.15 MB]
 10.7441/joc.2021.01.01
Dobrzanski, P., Bobowski, S., Chrysostome, E., Velinov, E., & Strouhal, J. (2021). Toward Innovation-
Driven Competitiveness Across African Countries: An Analysis of Efficiency of R&D Expenditures.
Journal of Competitiveness, 13(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.7441/joc.2021.01.01
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