Innovation Index

Innovation requires a certain climate or environment in order to flourish, and there are fundamental similarities that can be found in the bastions of creativity worldwide. A measurement of creativity is that of Richard Florida's Creativity Index (2004) which is a baseline indicator of a region’s overall standing in the creative economy and a barometer of a region’s long run economic potential.

According to Florida, regional economic growth is powered by creative people who prefer places that are diverse, tolerant and open to new ideas. Diversity increases the chances that a place will attract different types of creative people with different skill sets and ideas. This in turn speeds up the flow of knowledge and together with greater and more diverse concentrations of creative capital, leads to higher rates of innovation, job creation and economic growth. Our Innovation Index will take Florida's creativity index as a starting point and aim to uncover the factors that contribute to the fostering of innovation.

This Innovation Index will be benchmarked against existing creative capitals of the world such as New York, London, San Francisco and Los Angeles as well as Asian capitals such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Taipei.