Signposts of Innovation: A Review of Innovation Metrics

This paper reviews existing innovation metrics at the company-level and country-level, and proposes a system of signposts of innovation to help executives with a guiding framework and data resources for evaluating and planning innovation strategies and activities. The scope of the review is intentionally very broad, ranging from academic papers, policy papers, reports by consulting firms, reports by innovative firms, and magazine articles to capture a holistic view of the complexity of innovation activities that today’s businesses undertake. We also incorporate input from The Conference Board members’ perspectives identifying some of the most important metrics they currently use or need in the future and identifying signposts around which these metrics are organized. The proposed framework is comprised of six major signposts of innovation (technology, digitization, environmental & social sustainability, customer experience and branding, internal innovation networks, external innovation ecosystems), captures major areas of innovation activities throughout the life-cycle of innovation, and reflects the complexity of new generations of innovation models.