Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management Rabat, Morocco, April 11-13, 2017 1222 A Framework for National Innovation Determinants Siham HAMIDI and Abdelaziz BERRADO Equipe AMIPS - Ecole Mohammadia d’Ingénieurs Mohamed V University Avenue Ibn Sina, BP765, Agdal, Rabat, Morocco hamidi.siham@gmail.com, berrado@gmail.com Abstract In a context of globalization and market openness, innovation has become a decisive engine to build a competitive advantage for economies on a national scale. Innovation is today essential for both entrepreneurs and policy-makers. In many countries, governments have used a set of incentives and processes, commonly referred to as National Innovation Systems (NIS), to boost innovation. However, these NISs require permanent monitoring and evaluation of existing potentials, reached results, as well as important weaknesses. To this end, several indicators have been used for comparative evaluations of innovation efforts and performances. The aim of this study is to contribute to the understanding of factors influencing the innovation performance of a country. Hence, a framework is proposed for analyzing innovation in a country and predicting its ability to innovate. A case study is also presented based on the 2015 data of the Global Innovation Index, defining the most important drivers (i.e., determinants) of the National Innovative Capacity. Keywords National Innovation System, National Innovative Capacity, Innovation Determinants, Innovation Framework. 1. Introduction The development of any economy, especially in the 21 st century, is based on knowledge and innovation as key drivers of economic growth. Innovation and technical progress are the product of a complex set of interactions between the actors producing, distributing and applying various kinds of knowledge (NIS, OECD, 1997). To a large extent, the innovative performance of a country depends on how these actors relate to each other as elements of a collective system. Both academic scholars and policy-makers focus on the increasing importance of innovation sources and consequences. In the late 1980s, the assessment of the capacity to innovate became an important asset for providing information about the dynamics of innovation. Therefore, many determinants and indexes were introduced in order to measure the innovation capacity (L. Suarez-Villa, 1990). We propose to analyse the innovative capacity of countries and identify the main factors that can differentiate the innovation dynamics of each country. This can be achieved using two complementary concepts: (i) National Innovation System and (ii) National Innovative Capacity. 1.1. Overview of National Innovation Systems The first integrated approach to National Innovation Systems (NISs) was proposed by Lundvall (1985 and 1988). This approach is based on the concept of "National System of Production," suggested by Liszt and Von Hippel's work on the informal technical collaborations among companies. Lundvall proposed three interacting spheres for the said national system of innovation as depicted in Figure 1. First, a productive sphere related to its economic and industrial structure. Second, a training-based sphere related to human resources training. Finally, a research sphere, characterized mainly by bonds built between public research institutions and companies (Djeflat, 2002). An NIS is largely influenced by 30 determinants (U. Seidel & al., 2013). Each of these determinants reflects an aspect of the innovation system, and they may be grouped into three levels: (i) Micro level, that provides support for main actors in the innovation system such as: enterprises, universities, organisations and R&D institutions (public