Evidence from surveys and case studies: What we know and what we do not know about industrial innovation in South Africa

Innovation, and particularly technological innovation, has come to be recognised as the primary force driving economic growth and prosperity. In the last decade a number of national innovation surveys were conducted in South Africa to measure innovation with the aim of utilising the findings for policymaking. National surveys of innovation in South African were conducted in 1996, 2001, 2005 and 2008. These national innovation surveys were supplemented by more detailed sub-sector surveys that focused on particular sectors of interest, such as the defence related industries and the automotive component manufacturing sector. Survey research is a positivistic research methodology that provides a broad overview of the national system of innovation, but it does not provide a clear picture of innovative behaviour at the individual firm level. Case study research, being a phenomenological research methodology, has to augment our understanding of industrial innovation at the firm level. This paper is an overview of past surveys and case studies of industrial innovation in South Africa and highlights the main findings as well as the major questions that still remain unanswered.