South African innovation survey: main results 2008

Abstract

This report presents the main findings of the South African Innovation Survey 2008, covering the period 2005 - 2007. It presents key indicators describing the activities and patterns of innovation in the business sector in South Africa, including resources and investment provided for innovation in enterprises; the types of innovation activities carried out; the level of novelty of innovations (new to an enterprise, new to the market and or new to the country); sources of information for innovation; and factors hampering or influencing innovation. The report also covers a number of other variables and factors that provide insight into innovation processes in South Africa and is meant to inform the development of innovation policy. The Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII) was commissioned by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to conduct an official series of South African Innovation Surveys as part of the DST's effort to establish a baseline set of science and technology (S&T) indicators for monitoring, reporting on and fine-tuning the National System of Innovation (NSI) in support of South Africa's National Research and Experimental Development (R&D) Strategy and the Ten-year Innovation Plan (2008-2018).