Innovation Imperatives for the Caribbean

INHERENT (AND COMMON) BIASES

• Techno centric conceptions of social and institutional change • High technology and science intensive processes are considered to be the goal • Focus on novelty • Lone inventor hero as a mythical figure ( big influence on the definition and the symbol of success) • Outcomes are not automatically produced in STI interventions • Reticence about risk and uncertainty and the contrast with the requirement for policy to use committal language • De-emphasis on ethical dimensions • Mindset and several other cultural, psychological and societal dimensions of innovation do not receive adequate attention • Insistence on standard metrics for measuring innovation outcomes and impact