Measuring innovation

The U.S. Department of Commerce seeks public input to measure innovation in the economy. The major categories are:

"1. Improvement of the underlying architecture of the U.S. System of National Accounts to facilitate development of improved and more granular measures of innovation and productivity;
2. Identification of appropriate economy-wide and sector-specific statistical series or other indicators that could be used to quantify innovation and/or its impacts;
3. Identification of firm-specific data items that could enable comparisons and aggregation; and
4. Identification of specific "holes" in the current data collection system that limit our ability to measure innovation".

From my point of view it's a task to overcome limitations which businesses reach from time to time in order to remain competitive - look at the possible variants explained in the framework for collaborative self-consulting:



Individual S-curves (from each businesses) could be aggregated by sectors, national and international economies (to compare and correct). This interoperability of the mentioned framework (it's under way towards 2.0 version) might require next generation consulting services.

Why so?

Because innovation is a natural human ability and was/is not being considered as for everyone in the industrial age where people was and still are closed within hierarchical levels and organizational borders.

I remember a problem of proper indicators for innovation in the Soviet Union. Since it was the economy of one owner there was an opportunity to rearrange the sector-specific borders and allow to develop the flat structures (networks). Unfortunately the discussions I knew were within 2 dogmas - plan and market.