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Towards a taxonomy of innovation systems

2008 , Godinho, Manuel Mira , Mendonça, Sandro F. , Santos Pereira, Tiago

The concept of National Innovation System (NIS) has been recently applied in the context of developing nations even though it was originally developed in relation to the more developed economies (Japan, Scandinavian countries, US etc.). This raises the methodological problem of knowing whether what was learnt in the study of more advanced NISs is relevant for all sorts of economies regardless the maturity of their actual innovation systems. With this question in mind an exploratory exercise is implemented. First a technique for mapping different NIS is put forward and next based on such mapping a taxonomy of NISs is proposed. The technique although simple in the steps it requires shows analytical potential. The cartography it generates allows one to compare directly different countries, by visualizing in bi-dimensional space the graphic pattern of the relevant dimensions of their respective NISs. This technique is applied to 69 countries (87.4% of the world population) and a set of 29 indicators is used to examine these NISs along eight major dimensions. With the resulting data, and with the help of cluster analysis, a taxonomy of innovation systems is proposed. That taxonomy which contains 6 major types of NISs indicates that what differentiates most the individual systems is their performance in three critical dimensions: innovation, diffusion and basic and applied knowledge. Country size and the natural resources endowment of the economies also emerge as important contingency factors underlying the overall dynamics of different NISs.

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A Taxonomy of National Innovation Systems: Lessons From an Exercise Comprising a Large Sample of Both Developed, Emerging and Developing Economies

2006-10 , Godinho, Manuel Mira , Mendonça, Sandro F. , Pereira, Tiago Santos

The aim of this paper is to put forward a taxonomy of national innovation systems (NISs). With that purpose in mind we will first implement a technique for mapping innovation systems that was developed by Godinho et al. (2003). Such mapping allows one to compare directly different NISs, by visualizing in bi-dimensional space the graphic pattern of the relevant dimensions of each innovation system. Next the quantitative output of this NISs mapping will be used as the basis for performing a cluster analysis in a second step. The resulting country groupings will be analysed for identifying the major factors separating different NISs types. This will be the basis for a definition of a possible NISs taxonomy. In the paper eight major dimensions along which innovation systems develop are highlighted. These dimensions include market conditions; institutional conditions; intangible and tangible investments; basic and applied knowledge; external communication; diffusion; and innovation. For materialising such eight NIS dimensions 29 individual indicators were selected for a total of 69 countries. These countries range from the most developed and largest economies in the world, through the emerging economies, to the less advanced developing countries. For each of the 8 relevant NIS dimensions between 2 and 6 of these 29 indicators were allocated. The definition of the NIS dimensions and the selection of indicators tried to respect theoretical and logic criteria of organization of the data. Overall the data basis that was developed and the methodological steps that were taken represent a unique attempt to cover such a large and diverse number of countries with the aim of analysing their behaviour in terms of creating, consolidating and advancing their national innovation systems. As it will be shown, the resulting outcomes of this paper have empirical, theoretical and normative potential. Following this introduction the paper is divided into five main sections. Section 2 presents the conceptual context of the mapping and taxonomisation exercise that will be carried out. In section 3 the method followed is described, with information about the observed NIS dimensions, about the variables aggregated into each of those dimensions and about the economies that were selected as well. Next section 4 presents the results of the empirical analysis, by concentrating first on the mapping of the individual NISs and then on the structure that stems from a cluster analysis. The clusters that emerged are observed in section 5, providing an interpretation for the contrasting positions of the different countries involved in this exercise. Finally, the concluding section attempts at a generalization based on the analyses of the previous sections, suggesting a possible taxonomy of national innovation systems.