How do you measure innovation effectiveness? The other day, a PHD student said in her presentation that effectiveness could be measured by the number of patents registered. This was based on the literature she has been reading. Most cite patents. TNL was getting mightily uncomfortable as she shifted in her tiny, comfy seat. Before she could say anything, her concern was raised by another PHD student in the audience.

My esteemed Science librarian friend (who is no longer a librarian technically and hates to be reminded of this) would have gone ballistic. She knows patent searching inside out, you see. Anyway, to cut a long story short, TNL checked with a lecturer at ISE and this is his take:

“Patents are usually used in the context of measuring innovation output. However, outputs are not synonymous with effectiveness (as in effective in enhancing the competitive advantage of a company) as evidenced by the number of patents that do not actually bring in any revenue to the patent holder.

However, it is a measure of innovativeness in the sense that, since a patent is only granted for novel inventions, the number of patents may indicate the degree of innovativeness. However, as mentioned above, innovativeness per se is not going to be very useful if it does not bring in economic benefits.”

So how does one measure innovation effectiveness? Anybody?