The GII ranks world economies according to their innovation capabilities. It consists of roughly 80 indicators, grouped into innovation inputs and outputs. The ranking aims to capture the multi-dimensional facets of innovation in 132 economies. Every year, the GII is published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), a specialized self-funding agency of the United Nations with 193 member states.
Benchmark for Innovation Performance
The GII looks at the latest global innovation trends and finds that even though there is a lot of uncertainty and less risk capital investment, the Digital Age and Deep Science innovation waves are creating a lot of possibilities.
Governments all over the world use the GII to compare the success of innovation, improve innovation metrics, and, in the end, shape innovation policy based on facts. Over the past 10 years, the GII has become both a major source of information on innovation and a “tool for action” for economies that use the GII as part of their innovation plans.
This year, the report’s findings are unveiled against a background of slow economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, high-interest rates, and geopolitical conflict.
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A total of 21 economies outperformed on innovation as expected relative to their level of development, with the majority located in Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia, East Asia, and Oceania. India, the Republic of Moldova, and Vietnam have each been innovation overperformers for 13 years in a row. Indonesia, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan maintain their overperformer status for a second year, and Brazil for a third consecutive year.
“A group of emerging economies are consistently climbing the GII ranks, showing how a focus on the innovation ecosystem can make a difference. Globally, despite a downturn in venture capital funding, the GII 2023 should reassure us that innovative activity currently continues to run strong but that innovative activity should continue to shift from quantity to quality,” says Daren Tang, WIPO General Director.
Swiss Innovations are the best
Among the 132 economies featured in the GII 2023, Switzerland ranks first and thus defends its position from last year. The country also ranks first among the 50 high-income economies and among the 39 economies in Europe. Sweden jumped from third to second place, and the USA has come down from second to third place in the overall ranking.
Switzerland, as an innovation leader, reached the most points in Knowledge and technology outputs and Creative outputs. On the contrary, the country ranks lowest in Market sophistication (7th), Human capital and research (6th), and Business sophistication (5th).
Roche (pharmaceuticals and biotechnology), Novartis (pharmaceuticals and biotechnology), Nestle (food producers), and Syngenta (chemicals) are the Swiss winners of the Global company research and development (R&D) investors. The QS university ranking includes the top universities: ETH Zürich, Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne, and the University of Zürich.
The top Unicorn companies in Switzerland are Sonarsource (internet software and services, Geneva), Acronis (cybersecurity, Schaffhausen), and Nexthink (data management and analysis, Prilly). The top 5,000 companies in Switzerland with the highest global brand value are Nestle (food), Rolex (apparel), and UBS (banking).
