South Africa: A rising star? Assessing the X-effectiveness of South Africa's national system of innovation

This paper assesses the X-effectiveness of South Africa's national system of innovation. It focuses on problems that occur in innovation projects, assuming that those problems are indicators of the effectiveness of flows of different institutions into South African innovators. An analysis of some macro-economic trends shows that the South African economy is a "two-world economy", a characterization that sets the stage for the performance of the country's innovation system. Our findings on a whole suggest that relatively inefficient functioning institutions hamper South African innovators. As a result, compared to some European countries, some vital ingredients of innovation are not adequately provided. © 2005 Taylor & Francis.