About the
Index
La Norwegian School of Economics NHH initiated the
research on the National Innovation Index
from a consumer perspective.
CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS
As a starting
point
A team of researchers from NHH initiated this project taking as a starting point that:
Countries cannot innovate: companies can innovate, and
Consumers are the ones who can ultimately judge the outcome of that innovation
Other indices
Exist but…
DIFERENT CRITERIA
There are other innovation indexes in which the unit of analysis is different from the end consumer.
MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS
At the national level, existing sources are often based on macroeconomic indicators (e.g. Global Innovation Index and Bloomberg Innovation Index)
SELF-REPORTS
Other sources are based on self-reports by managers or experts (e.g. Community Innovation Survey, Fast Company World’s Most Innovative).
LEAVE ASIDE
These perspectives are undeniably valuable, but they neglect the experiences and opinions of the recipients of innovation: the consumers.
Countries cannot innovate
The ÍEI is a project developed in partnership with the Norwegian School of Economics NHH, which began the analysis with this starting point.
Companies can innovate
The innovation index captures both company innovations and customer perceptions of changes in the value proposition resulting from company innovation.
The consumer judges the outcome
The objective is to assess the perception of company/brand innovation along different dimensions and to examine the effects of that perception on the company’s strategic positioning.
Through a carefully designed procedure, this innovation index captures both company innovations and customer perceptions of changes in the value co-creation resulting from these innovations. The main objective is to assess the perception of company/brand innovation in different dimensions and to examine the effects of innovation perception on companies’ strategic positioning and customer loyalty.
The publicly available result is the annual rating and ranking of the main B2C companies operating in the country across a variety of sectors, based on their capacity to innovate, their relative attractiveness and customer loyalty. In addition, the ÍEI allows for a detailed analysis of customer reactions to the innovation activities of specific companies, as well as a systemic analysis of innovation at the industry level.
After the creation of the Norwegian Innovation Index (developed by researchers Tor W. Andreassen, Line Lervik-Olsen and Seidali Kurtmollaiev) other countries have implemented analogous indeces using the same methodology; which include the United States of America (Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business), Denmark (Aarhus University), Sweden (Karlstad Business School), Belgium (Hasselt Universtiy) and Finland (Hanken School of Economics).
