Innovation Policies, Business Creation, and Economic Development ─ A Comparative Approach

This volume explores the dynamics of the innovation process in developing countries with respect to economic growth. First, the book focuses on the relationship between innovation and economic development from a macroeconomic perspective, with an emphasis on incorporating technological change and intellectual property rights into the theoretical model. This section also considers that the meaning of such fundamental terms as "innovation", "entrepreneurship", and "macroeconomic policies", vary considerably across nations and cultures, with profound implications for the development of policies designed to promote new business creation, growth, and competitiveness. The second section of the book focuses on a microeconomic approach, taking a sociological approach to the economics of creativity at the organizational level. Topics include the effect of beliefs on organizational creativity and the relationship between leadership style and the value system of the entrepreneur on firm-level innovation. The third part of the book focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises, providing empirical research from Turkey, India, and the European Union to shed light on product, process, organizational and marketing innovations, with respect to economic development. The volume concludes with discussion of the impact of well-functioning national innovation systems on decreasing the gaps between the developed and developing nations.

Neslihan Aydgoan is Assistant Professor, Department of Economic, Cankaya University, and Visiting Assistant Professor, Duquesne University, Donahue Graduate School of Business. She has served as an Instructor, University of Maastricht; Visiting Scholar, Carnegi Mellon University, Software Industry Center; and Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. She has published on such topics as knowledge management, innovation, entrepreneurship, high-tech industries, and economic development, and is coauthor of Social Capital and Business Development in High-Technology Clusters (Springer, forthcoming, 2008).