InDUI

InDUI Logo

Image: Tatjana Bennert

Description

InDUI signifies: Indicators for the Doing-Using-Interacting-Mode (DUI-mode). The DUI-mode is an umbrella term for different types of learning and exchange of knowledge, which are especially important for the innovation process in small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). The InDUI project aims at investigating new ways of measuring DUI-type innovations. The overall goal is to apply these indicators to both economic and innovation policies.

Economic policy context

Adequate measurements of the innovative activities of firms are necessary in order to capture, compare and estimate the effects of public innovation policies. The Federal Ministry of Research and Education established a new line of funding in order to investigate new ways of measuring innovative activity. A sole focus on inputs to innovation, such as expenditures for Research and Development (R&D), or measurements of outputs, including patent applications or the revenue share of product innovations, is unlikely to accurately capture the scope of innovative activity. Rather, these indicators measure the formal part of firms' innovative activities, leaving aside a large part of informal learning and knowledge sharing processes. The latter is especially important for SMEs, and current indicators systematically underestimate the innovative activity of SMEs. The InDUI project aims at addressing this shortcoming.

Research context and project goal

The InDUI project provides a more precise measurement of DUI-mode innovations. Special attention is paid to SMEs, as SMEs often create technological and non-technological innovations with few or no expenses on R&D. A recent country comparison shows that German firms heavily rely on this kind of innovative activity. The purpose of the InDUI project is thus the development of indicators capturing the innovative output of SMEs and regional innovation systems, characterized by the DUI-mode of innovation. DUI-mode learning and behavior patterns, deduced from previous empirical investigations, will be mirrored in economic experiments in a controlled laboratory setting. This methodological approach allows the identification and explanation of central behavioral traits and underlying behavioral-economic and psychological mechanisms behind the DUI-mode of innovation of individuals, firms and regional innovation systems.

Partners

The project is conducted by researchers from the Georg August University Göttingen, the Leibnitz University Hannover and the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena and is coordinated by the ifh Göttingen.