Providing nuanced insight into key areas of innovation studies, this erudite second edition acknowledges the significance of innovation within the informal economy. It contributes to the broader scholarly discourse on innovation indicators and measurement, exploring the nature and rate of recent developments within the field. The Handbook of Innovation Indicators and Measurement showcases recent advancements within the field of innovation and provides an expansive commentary on contemporary issues such as the effect of the general definition of innovation on zero price products. Updated chapters emphasise rapid changes brought about by digital developments and provide a further examination of the influence of people on social and frugal innovation. This essential second edition will be valuable for university lecturers and academics of economics, public policy and innovation aspiring to update their course content. It will additionally be beneficial for those working in government departments pursuing more effective policy intervention.

This book was produced in an environment of uncertainty and constantly changing narratives about COVID-19 and its effects. From a narrative of survival in 2020 to contain the spread of the virus with a central role of government leadership, evidence-informed decisions, solidarity and a scientific race to develop a vaccine taking the central stage; to a later narrative in 2021 focused on socio-economic recovery, building back better, managing vaccine inequalities and visions and proposals for post-COVID societies.

In 2022, we have seen a move to a narrative of post-pandemic (rather than post-COVID-19) and “learning to live with the virus” with societies in the global South learning to navigate the harsh economic realities by looking at opportunities emerging in the digital and regional spaces. The production of this book embeds some of these dominant narratives in different chapters, as they were developed over such unstable ground.

This experience has put a spotlight on the importance of innovative solutions, and the role of public sector, raising a new interest in governance systems and structures, and ways to strengthen governance overall. The pandemic has propelled countries across the world to innovate and develop more resilient systems and strategies that will enable us to gain the capacity to tackle complex challenges we face today and those that will come.

We hope this book helps us extract some valuable lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. After all, learning from a crisis may well be our best way to prepare for the future.

The informal economy represents a significant share of output and employment in many developing countries. Yet little is known about this hidden engine of innovation. This pioneering study addresses some crucial questions, including: what is the role of the informal sector in economic development? How does innovation occur in the informal economy? How does it spread, who are the key actors and what impacts does it have? How do inventors and entrepreneurs in the informal economy reap benefits from their innovations? What stops informal sector innovation from scaling up? How can informal sector innovation in developing countries be measured? And what policies might support informal sector innovation and improve its impacts? This book will stimulate further work on this crucial but under-researched subject. As well as rich empirical evidence from several groundbreaking studies, it includes conceptual and methodological tools and policy recommendations to help researchers and policy-makers understand innovation in the informal economy.