Science and innovation investments in Global North-South context

Resumen

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to present an analysis in relation to the debate on the role of gross domestic investments in Research and Development (R&D) as a fundamental variable in the capacity of technology absorption by national innovation systems and the economic performance of two geoeconomic groups of countries in the face of global competitiveness.

Methodology: The methodology used was based on the analysis of the socioeconomic peculiarities existing among 16 nations of the referred blocks, in the period of ten years (2011 to 2020), from data obtained from the reports of the Global Innovation Index and the WIPO. For the modeling, an electronic spreadsheet was used for structuring and verifying the data.

Originality/Relevance: Factors such as infrastructure, international trade and human capital influence developing countries on their way to a place in various sectors of the world economy and the elaboration of public policies in S&T, on the part of decision makers, plays an important role in improving these factors.

Main results: The analysis of the results highlights the existence of a structural gap that persists over the years between nations both in terms of R&D and with regard to national innovation systems and that investments in R&D are fundamental for the development and consolidation of scientific advances that will result in better performance in global indicators.

Theoretical/methodological contributions: Despite the need for a greater expansion of research, both in number of economies and periods to be achieved, we believe that this study brought a perception of the performance of countries in relation to their investments in scientific research and its importance for the growth of nations.