Abstract
The last two decades witnessed a surge of radical innovations in developing economies. This surge has expedited the research on understanding the factors that foster innovations and transmit the benefits of innovation to economic development. In this study, we have examined the role of enabling factors, social and human capital, for radical innovations and how these impacts are catalyzed to economic development. Using the data of 59 developing countries for 1980-2022, the results of GMM showed that though both social and human capital foster innovations, the impact of human capital is substantive. However, social capital provides a better linkage between innovations and development. The improvement in institutional quality is recognized as essential for radical innovations, while trade openness and FDI are not aligned with the innovative process of developing economies. To sustain this growth in radical innovations, developing economies should focus on enabling factors along with realigning external sector policies with the structure of innovativeness.