Evaluation Context An innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product, a new process, a new marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization, or external relations. Entrepreneurship refers to firms undertaking risks and marshaling resources in pursuit of perceived business opportunities. This evaluation focuses on innovative entrepreneurs, defined as new or existing innovative firms that organize a business and provide something new. Innovation and entrepreneurship can be mutually reinforcing and together can be a powerful source of improved productivity and competitiveness. In emerging economies and developing countries there is a growing realization that inno vation is a prerequisite for maintaining competitiveness in global markets and is critical for catching up with top performing emerging market economies and developed countries. The World Bank Group has supported lending and non-lending activities in science, technology, innovation, and enterprise development for more than three decades. Yet this evaluation is the first comprehensive review to span the broad range of strategies and policy instruments that Bank Group institutions have used to support innovation and entrepreneurship. The conceptual framework that guides this evaluation is developed from theoretical literature on innovation and entrepreneurship processes, as well as from the Bank Group’s own experience with respect to interventions that respond to market and government failures; it is also based on other bottlenecks that impede innovation and entrepreneurship. This conceptualization of innovation and entrepreneurship focuses attention on four areas of interventions: (i) support to research and development (R&D), (ii) strengthening entrepreneurial capabilities, (iii) providing financing schemes, and (iv) fostering linkages among the actors in innovation systems — all within the context of a broad enabling environment. The overarching question that IEG seeks to answer through this evaluation is: To what extent did targeted Bank Group interventions foster innovation and entrepreneurship intended to transform new ideas into greater competitiveness, economic growth, and poverty reduction? Specifically, it assesses the quality of strategic guidance for selecting and designing interventions in support of innovation and entrepreneurship, examines the effectiveness of different types of interventions, and distills lessons to enhance the effectiveness of the Bank Group support for innovation and entrepreneurship. Evidence for the evaluation comes from a portfolio review of World Bank Group projects, staff interviews, field surveys, and desk reviews of documents from within and outside the Bank Group.
An Independent Evaluation | Overview
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