Few people have shaped the way we see the process of economic development as Joseph Schumpeter did. While his theory of economic growth through innovation and creative destruction has been widely disseminated in academic and policy circles, we know less about one critical implication for economic development: the huge potential role of technology adoption.

Why, despite the large gains that innovation and technology adoption would bring to them, don’t developing-country firms innovate more and why don’t governments prioritize innovation more than other growth policies?

When we look at developing effective innovation policies in developing countries, we need to look carefully at the gaps in these complementary factors. Simply pouring money into R&D in a country where basic managerial and organizational capabilities are absent is not effective innovation policy – or a good use of scarce resources.

Read the full article by William Maloney and Xavier Cirera about accelerating development from World Bank Blogs