Developing a maturity model to evaluate innovation policy across generations

Purpose This paper aims to develop a maturity model for innovation policy programs that assesses policy programs according to the literature. Reviewing the historical emergence and decline of themes in innovation policy literature with a combination of bibliometric and thematic analysis methods resulted in identifying 36 main themes. Design/methodology/approach Accordingly, the maturity model is designed with four levels and nine axes. The model’s axes are market creation, innovation value, innovation impact, actors’ interactions, actors’ capabilities, social participation, reflective learning, coordination in implementation and resource allocation. At Level 0 (undefined), the policy does not contain any mechanism to support different aspects of innovation development, while the first level focuses on public organizations. Levels 2 and 3 add private firms and civil societies to the policymaking process, respectively, ensuring the development of an inclusive innovation policy program. Findings Finally, the maturity model has been used to evaluate Iranian innovation policymaking progress, focusing on the “Support of Knowledge-based Firms and Institutions and Commercialization of Innovations and Inventions Act” (2010) and the “Knowledge-based Production Boost Act” (2022) as its central policy documents. Originality/value Different generations have described the innovation development process, and theoretical concepts embedded in innovation policies are divided into different generations. However, no model has evaluated the innovation policy programs to check their evolution according to the growing understanding of innovation policy generations.