Effectiveness and efficiency of national systems of innovation: The importance of ICT, the cases of Ghana and Kenya

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the determinants of the Effectiveness and Efficiency of the Ghana National System of Innovation (GNSI) and the Kenya National System of Innovation (KNSI). Two regression analyses is performed on the level of innovativeness of Business Enterprises (BE) (Effectiveness) and of the strength of linkages between Research institutes (RI) and the Production System (Efficiency) with respect to an array of independent variables of the National System of Innovation (NSI). We find that the GNSI and the KNSI are conformed by actor linkages and ICT positively with respect to Ghana and negatively in the case of Kenya. Lack of Finance is a significant determinant in the GNSI whereas adequacy of Human Resources is a significant determinant for the KNSI. In both countries Level of Innovativeness of BEs and Strength of RI Linkages with the Production System are significant in the modeling.