Abstract
An effective innovation system provides rules and procedures that nurture ideas, research, and increase in knowledge, resulting in new goods/services, new production or organisational processes, or new marketing techniques, and hence is a major source of technological progress does not exist in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In order for Bosnia and Herzegovina to increase and strengthen the commercialization of research and innovativeness of companies, it is necessary to (1) increase investments in R&D at least to the norm of the African Union (1% of GDP), as the European Union norm (3% of GDP) is too high, and (2) design and implement policy measures aimed at stimulating the research and development capacities of the business sector (through tax incentives for staff and capital engagement) to strengthen the activities of commercialization of research and development and links between universities and business companies (e.g., to establish a program for the establishment of technology and innovation centres [one per region]).
TopIntroduction
Modern economic growth is a process of continuous technological progress, diversification and upgrade of infrastructure, energy, transportation and communication sources and improvements in institutional arrangements that constitute the context for business development and wealth creation with the purpose of improving living standards (see Table 1).
Table 1. Four industrial revolutions (Based on: Prisecaru (2016); Xu, David and Kim (2018) etc.
| Revolution | Period | Phase of Commercialisation | Energy Source | Key Production Factor | Transport and Communication | Production Process | Main Technical Achievement | Main Developed Industries |
| 1. | 1760-1900 | 1820-1900 | Coal | Labour | Train | Mechanisation | Steam engine | Textile, Steel |
| 2. | 1900-1960 | 1940-1960 | Oil, Electricity | Capital | Train, Car, Telephone, Telegraph | Electrification
Chemical synthesis | Combustion engine | Metallurgy, Auto, Machine Building, Chemistry |
| 3. | 1960-2000 | 1980-2000 | Natural gas, Nuclear energy | Knowledge | Plane, Internet | Automation | Computers, Robots | Information technology |
| 4. | 2000- | 2015(?)- | Decarbonisation, Clean energy | Ideas | Electric car, Ultrafast train | Digitalisation | Artificial intelligence, 3D printer, Genetic Engineering, Internet of Things | High tech industries, Biotechnology |
Due to the lack of structural reforms, primarily because the gap in technology has not been narrowing, the growth rates of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) have not accelerated more than those of its comparators particularity since 2009.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Innovation: Process of producing ideas, confirmed as viable by research and approved at the market or through benchmarking if not marketable as a newly created value.
Translation Infrastructure: Facilities that ensure that inventions and innovations are faster and more efficiently translated into commercial products.
Technology Transfer: The process of transferring practices and devices from the developed country to the developing countries enabling the later to replicate them, has higher growth rate and catch up with developed country.
Three-Hump Model: An outdated model of translating inventions and innovations into commercial products which splits up the translation process into basic research, carried out by universities, and applied research carried out by research institutes that translate universities’ outputs into companies’ inputs.
Technopolis: Long-term oriented type of ‘translation infrastructure’ aimed to support high-tech companies which seek and adapt the latest and specific technology to develop their own product and processes with systematically based and strong support of community of researchers, engineers and technicians located in the vicinity of dynamic businesses and universities.
Excellence Centre: Rudimentary part and project based type of ‘translation infrastructure’ attached to the industry of strategic importance for future development of the region focused on very specific research and workforce training of companies with potential to become an international leader in the global niche in which a particular region has strong or potentially strong international competencies.
University Technology and Innovation Centre (UTIC): A regionally based, partially market and mid-term oriented type of ‘translation infrastructure’ serving as an engine of innovation for an industry through systematic relationship of the university and companies agglomerated or gathered in value chain, cluster, industrial sector of development pole of the respective region.
Technology: A set of practices and devices that determine how to transform efficiently key inputs (labour, capital, and materials) into outputs.