1. Fostering an innovation-based economy
In the last articles of Innovation Models, we addressed micro issues concerning
innovations in a specific industry and theory on innovation as a whole. Brooking’s Study on
“Building an Innovation-Based Economy” by Darrell West, Allan Friedman, and Walter
Valdiviaapproaches the issue of innovation more broadly, with various suggestions and
recommendations not only in the private but also in the public level in order to create an
effective innovation-based economy. The most general ideas of the study are policy
recommendations for government: In their recommendations, theyargue that the primary goals
of policymakers should be: ensuring conditions that promote innovation and entrepreneurship in
the private sector, leveraging the digital economy in a way that boosts government services and
makes agencies more efficient and effective, enhance digital infrastructure and provide data that
allows the proper measurement of economic figures and laying the foundation for a strong,
educated, and innovative workforce. More specifically the study reveals that policymakers
should fosterthe improvement of metrics that value worker productivity; invest on the mating of
entrepreneurial skills and academic life and the expansion and create conditions for start-ups to
evolve, to encourage entrepreneurship early on, which encourages government to get more
involved in entrepreneurial activity by providing credit and/or tax breaks to new businesses;
legislate the improvement of infrastructures that enable the evolution and widespread of
communications which facilitates business everywhere; improve the harmonization of cross-
border laws that facilitate communication and freedom of expression; improve technological
transfer and commercialization of knowledge from universities to public and private companies
so that both public and private investments translate into jobs and economic activity as well as
better health, security, and well-being.
This study focuses on turning the US economy into a more innovation-based economy
by appealing to policymakers to create legislation and programs that facilitate the creation of
new businesses. Even though it is primarily directed to the US economy and it’s issues with the
lack of innovation in some sectors, the study presents more general examples and guidelines of
important policy that can be applied outside the US. One of the most impressive statements in
addressing this issue is the concern for the improvement of infrastructures that facilitate
communications, since it is normally not a big issue in most developed economies but it is
extremely important in the US. Another issue in fostering an innovation-based economy that
can be applied outside the US is building an educated and innovative workforce, and reducing
bottlenecks in the dissemination and commercialization of knowledge, which is crucial for a
starting point in building a strong and ever so innovative business environment in the long-run.
Brooking’s study focuses on the US economy, however some of the policies and
structural reforms that the authors suggest were already implemented in some countries and
most of them are now an example of groundbreaking sustainable innovations. Such is the
example of Japan and Finland. The source for this claim is the Global Competitiveness Index of
the World Economic Forum; a complete and thorough index that measures the competitiveness
of OECD countries, comprised of 12 pillars that formulate macro-economic and business data
into a competitiveness ranking. We will be using the last pillar, and one of the most important
ones to formulate the point we are making above. Below are the matrices of these 3 countries,
the US, Finland and Japan. Upon analyzing the matrices, the level of innovation in both Finland
and Japan top the list, however, in other pillars that compose the competitiveness index there is
some evidence of their difference to the US. Japan is on average with innovation-driven
economies while Finland is above average on most pillars except market size and infrastructure.
Both these economies have higher levels of business sophistication and institutions which are
pillars fundamental for the fostering of innovations in any country.

2. JAPAN FINLAND
U.S.A