Study IDs world's most innovative nations

BETHLEHEM, Pa., Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Japan and the Nordic countries are the world's most innovative nations, a U.S. study concluded.

The study conducted at Lehigh University and the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business evaluated 31 nations based on the time it takes for new products to be marketed.

Researchers found product takeoff times faster in Japan (5.4 years) than any other nation, closely followed by Norway, Sweden, Netherlands and Denmark. The United States ranked sixth at 6.2 years, followed by Switzerland and Austria.

"The changing dynamics of the global marketplace are redefining the concept of innovativeness," said Assistant Professor Deepa Chandrasekaran of Lehigh University. "More products are being introduced at a quick rate, and the ability of a nation to embrace those changes is a true indicator of how innovative it has become."

The results also revealedthat newly developed or developing countries, such as South Korea and Venezuela, saw faster product takeoff times than more established Mediterranean nations with longer histories of industrialization.

The study that included Professor Gerald Tellis, director of the Center for Global Innovation at the Marshall School of Business, appears in the September-October issue of the journal Marketing Science.