In today’s increasingly knowledge-driven world, science and
technology (S&T) are the inseparable twin keys to progress and industrial
growth as against the resource endowment of the past. Apparently, without
scientific knowledge and its application the economy of a nation or an
organisation either remains stagnant or declines. Consequently, most countries
of the world now devote an increasing proportion of their resources to S&T
and associated research and development (R&D), in an attempt to build
competitive advantage or to catch up with others who have already done
so. R&D, most especially in S&T, has become one of the most
enduring and effective means of improving sustainable economic development and
re-enforcing competitiveness in industries in a rapidly changing world.
Productive R&D is expected to lead to new products or improvement of
existing products, new process development or improvement of existing processes
and generation/creation of new knowledge, patents, copyrights and publications. Publications
are an indicator of quality invention and research outputs while patents,
copyrights, and funding from companies are an indicator that those inventions
have market potential (Carneiro, 2000; Werner and Souder, 1997; in
Numprasertchai and Igel, 2005). However, global experiences have shown that the
conduct of scientific R&D does not robotically translate into development.
For R&D to have any economic impact; R&D activities must be creative,
innovative and exist within a strong national innovation system (NIS).