Bibliographic summary of source: Diaz, Ileana. 2019.

“La Innovación en Cuba: Un análisis de sus

factores clave.” Innovar 29 (71): 43–54. https://doi.org/10.15446/innovar.v29n71.76394.

Official English title: Innovation in Cuba: Analysis of determining factors

General Topic: The article centers on evaluating the National Innovation System in Cuba by using the
Global Innovation Index. With this, it identifies problems in each area of the index - institutionality,
infrastructure, human capital, markets and businesses, results of knowledge and technology. It
concludes that the rigidity of the economic model and the slow reform process negatively affect each
area required for having a functional National Innovation System.

Main ideas:

1. Innovation in state-owned enterprises and state entities is necessary for the purpose of
building a prosperous and sustainable society in Cuba. Innovation is defined as the novel, or
significantly improved, introduction of a good or service, of a process, of a commercialization
method, and/or of a new organizational method in internal work practices, workplace
organization practices, or external relations of the organization. All enterprises operate within
a National Innovation System (NIS), which affects the innovative capacities, attitudes and
possibilities within a national context. Success factors for innovation include business
management in relation to internal policies and objectives, cultural traits such as openness to
new ideas, tolerance to risk and conflictive situations, and elements associated to autonomy
and market orientation. Factors which block innovation include the absence of strategic vision
(predominant focus on the short-term), centralized decision-making, insufficient incentives,
low organizational clarity, intolerance towards passionate professionals, communication
distortions and the isolation of high management. Innovation should be measured holistically,
using both quantitative and qualitative indicators, and measuring internal and external
processes which influence innovative capacities.
2. The study used the Global Innovation Index (GII) on state enterprises, and acknowledges that
although this method is used in market economies, it would allow to show the insufficiencies
of Cuba’s innovation system. It also argues that market mechanisms are necessary and the GII
provides a holistic overview of the NIS. The GII studies aspects such as institutionality,
infrastructure, human capital, markets and businesses as dimensions of indicators of inputs,
and the results of knowledge and technology as indicators of outputs. A survey was conducted
with 60 respondents being business-owners in Havana, Cuba, and other 50 respondents being
university professors in different provinces of the country.
3. Results concluded that innovation has not been a key focus of Cuba in its long-term strategy.
Enterprises are key actors in innovation ecosystems, and after comparing the results with the
Conceptualization of the Cuban Social and Economic Model, it seems state owned enterprises
will remain marginalized, lacking autonomy in decision-making processes, a future-orientation
and capabilities to innovate.
a. Institutionally, the centrally-organized economy is too restricting, with adherence to
the Economic Plan paralyzing the incentives to innovate (as the consequences of not
adhering to the Plan are problematic for the whole economy in its current state).
b. Formal markets for state enterprises are basically non-existent or stale, and the
interaction between these enterprises is strictly formal.
 c. Infrastructure development is poor, particularly in terms of lag in adopting ICTs.
d. Human capital presents the best performance out of all the dimensions, but still has
some problems related to productivity and underemployment.
e. High-technology is present in the biotechnology sector, but otherwise it is underused.
f. Enterprises’ productive power is constrained by the rigidity of the economy and the
need to adhere to the Economic Plan.

Usefulness for research of Cuban Energy System:

1. Points to a difficult National Innovation System, which blocks potential opportunities to

develop projects of intermittent renewable energy sources to be fully realized. This is due to
the rigidity of the economy and the institutional environment.
2. Points to deficits in the knowledge of management of different enterprises and the lack of
productivity related to a detachment between the universities and research centers and
productive activities.

Commentary on worldview/perspective/theoretical approach / discourse / potential bias:

Given the focus and the method, it was perhaps inevitable that the approach yielded very bad results
from Cuba. It turns out that, under this evaluation, Cuba’s NIS is very restricted and unfavorable to
innovation. But to me, this is a limited understanding of innovation – intra-entrepreneurship could be
attempted to a certain extent to increase productivity, and organizational processes and
communication flows can also be improved (whether there is political will to do that or not is another
matter). Similarly, the concept of social innovation, in which social problems are solved by introducing
a new good, service, or mechanism, is also overlooked. By adopting the definition and focus of
innovation of a market economy, the results could have foreseen that under those parameters, Cuba’s
innovation system would not be graded highly. Besides the requirements to transitioning towards a
more market-oriented economic model, some other suggestions or considerations for how to operate
under current conditions would be welcome. For instance, could innovation in cooperatives work?
How constrained would that be? These are questions for further exploration down the line.