(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004)
Johnson, Björn; Edquist, Charles; Lundvall, Bengt-Åke
“One major academic aim of the conference is to enrich and enhance the quality of innovation research by applying some of its fundamental concepts such as 'innovation systems', 'competence building' and 'interactive learning' to issues at the core of economic development. It is well known that applying a theoretical framework outside the arena where it was first developed may bring fundamental new theoretical insights.” In this paper we will try to substantiate what is referred to in the above text taken from the conference web-site for the first Globelics conference. We will try to demonstrate that the application of the innovation system concept on economic development makes more visible some general weaknesses of the concept and gives strong incentives to develop it further. In the development context it becomes clear that we need to understand better the formation of as well as the openness of national systems and the role of power relationships as well as the broader institutional context supporting competence building.