Micro & Macro Evidence on Innovation and Economic Performance of Algerian Firms

Abstract

Innovation is often associated with competitiveness, economic performance and economic growth; it is accepted that Innovation is one of the efficient means to obtain a superior and a stable position in the marketplace. In the last few decades; the literature has shown that the growth in the stock of knowledge has been the most important factor behind the dramatic rise in living standards in countries that show a broad convergence in macroeconomic performance. Countries, also, all around the globe are paying a great attention to Innovation as well as to the whole national innovation system (NIS); While some other countries are still in need to gather their efforts in ways that drive the innovation activities development. This paper aims at identifying the main characteristics of the NIS of Algeria, it, also, highlights the key innovation problems and obstacles of industrial firms, mainly in North African Countries. Our work is based on the one hand on a theoretical, and comparison study, of the National innovation system, of the Maghreb countries. On the other hand it stands on a field research carried out on a sample of Algerian industrial firms, the interpretation and analysis of the results of our survey through using both, descriptive analysis and logistic regression helped identifying the core characteristic of the Algerian innovative enterprises, in addition to the main obstacles of innovation in Algeria; in Maghreb countries, innovation systems construction takes place in a very specific environment characterized by privatization of public concerns, the rise of a strong Small & Medium enterprises sector but with very little experience in the fields of R&D and innovation, and a relatively weak industrial sector in terms of industrial performances, suffering high obsolescence both in terms of human resources, equipment and linkages between the different actors of the innovation system, which negatively affects the role played by research on development processes. Some recommendations, for a well-functioning national innovation system for Maghreb countries, have been drown from this study.