Singapore and metrics for Entrepreneurship

[drllau]

In reviewing some innovation reports, I noticed that Singapore was only middling in the ranks of startups per capita. Now there may be no correlation with innovative activity (Tel Aviv has lower) but it is interesting to discover what are the metrics the govt use to measure the effectiveness of all the $$$ they are pumping into FinTech or favored sunrise industries. One rational is that commercalisation activities (narrowly measured by patents) is actually more in MNCs or SOEs/govt, as business units are not counted as startups. Unfortunately no info for HK where innovation is more self-financed and less directed by the government. Another conjecture is that the relatively high cost of living forces startups to quit earlier if no traction. A counter-argument might be that SG is seen more as a holding/financing hub and there's a portion of operating startups which are actually in adjacent countries.

Part of the problem is probably defining what are the metrics for innovation, as defensive incremental patents doesn't reflect radical disruptive and transformational industries. 20 years ago there wasn't a job category for search-engine optimisation. So one wonders what should be the right criteria to judge the impact of public policies

- capital structure - $$$ going into established vs newly formed entities ... in which case what is considered new

- value levels - a fuzzy conceptual survey of attitudes towards entreneurship, risk taking and business failure

- intangible social capital - headcount of mentors or non-monetary involvement in the early stage scene.

Perhaps innovation is just a frame of reference and we should really be looking at the pace of change? In which case if someone compares SG 10 years ago with 10 years in future, would it still be recognisable? (autonomous vehicles, QR codes for AR, brain- implants?, gengineering for smarter kids as a service?). Perhaps millennials will take the internet speed as normal and want constant new experiences (giving rise to digital nomadism as part of the experience economy) whilst old foggies like me stick to library and reading. As a curiosity, if you look at existing startups, and extrapolate 10 years, what changes would you expect for SG?