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ItemSystems of innovation for development in the knowledge era: an introduction(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004) Lastres, Helena M. M. ; Cassiolato, José Eduardo ; Maciel, Maria LuciaAt the turn of the millennium, as radical transformations affect the ways we produce, reproduce and organize our very existence, the challenges to social and economic development seem, at times, overwhelming. What is the nature of these transformations? What are the interests and forces orienting them? What are the impacts of these transformations on the productive and innovative capacities of developing countries? How can they best face these challenges? What are the policy implications? The aim of this book is to address these questions. In what has come to be known as the ‘Knowledge Era’, the economy is relying on knowledge-based activities much more than ever before. There are at least three, interrelated, main arguments for this: (i) the proportion of labour that handles tangible goods has become smaller than the proportion engaged in the production, distribution and processing of knowledge; (ii) the share of codified knowledge and information in the value of many products and services is significantly increasing; (iii) knowledge-intensive activities are rapidly growing. Obviously, information and knowledge have always been important in human history. But today’s knowledge is more and more codified and the resulting information is more and more incorporated into goods and services. The development and diffusion of a new techno-economic paradigm, centred on information and communications technologies (ICT), have accelerated and deepened both the codification of knowledge and the spread of information. The extent, the velocity and the intensity of these changes have provoked, on one hand, an unbridled and uncritical enthusiasm with the multiple possibilities apparently available to all and, on the other, considerable perplexity as to how this transition actually affects social, economic and political processes and the best ways to deal with it. As we shall see, the nature of the transformations – and, therefore, of the challenges – is not always what it seems or is said to be. The first task, then, is to explore the reality behind the myths and to understand the real processes beyond the appearances and the rhetoric.
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ItemInnovation and catching-up(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004) Fagerberg, Jan ; Godinho, Manuel Mira
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ItemThe Brazilian software industry(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004) Botelho, Antonio J. Junquiera ; Stefanuto, Giancarlo ; Veloso, Francisco
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ItemPolicy Conclusions and Recommendations(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004) Soete, LucThe policy aim expressed at the Lisbon summit (March 2000)– and reiterated at the recent spring Barcelona summit (March 2002) – to develop the European Union into the most efficient knowledge-based economy in the world, and hence raise substantially the amount of R&D and innovation expenditures in the European Research Area (ERA), is undoubtedly from a policy commitment perspective, a useful target, raising the awareness with national policy makers and the public at large of the importance of research, development and innovation for European long term sustainable growth, employment and welfare. Unfortunately, contrary to other, more directly policy related, macro-economic targets such as the EMU criteria of monetary unification in the nineties, the targeting of quantitative measures in the area of innovation, research and development is, to put it simply, more easily said than done. It has, as a matter of fact, been tried many times before in individual EU member countries (one may think of Harold Wilson White Heat policy campaign in the late 60’s in the UK). The attempt to set out such policy targets within the context of the development of a European Research Area raises even more fundamental challenges. As the analysis of the Commission quite correctly emphasized, there is as yet no European national system of innovation. Europe seems rather characterized by a variety of different national innovation systems. Those systems each have their pecularities, as was illustrated in the empirical analysis in Chapter 2 of this report. To “mobilise” and connect these, eventually integrate them raises many structural challenges to the supply side of Europe’s national RTD systems.
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ItemThe Economics of Knowledge and Learning(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004) Lundvall, Bengt-ÅkeThe focus in this book is on product innovation, learning and economic performance. A central theme is the understanding of learning and knowledge in connection with processes of technical and organisational change. In this chapter we present a conceptual framework to analyse knowledge and learning from an economic perspective. The starting point is the assumption that we are in a knowledge-based economy and we end by proposing that it is more adequate to characterize the current era as ‘a learning economy’. Crucial questions to be analysed here have to do with distinctions private/public, local/global and tacit/codified knowledge. While appearing as somewhat ‘academic’ at first sight they have important implications both for innovation policy and for the management of innovation and knowledge at the level of the firm. It has become commonplace among policy-makers to refer to the current period as characterised by a knowledge based economy and increasingly it is emphasised that the most promising strategy for economic growth is one aiming at strengthening the knowledge base of the economy1. This discourse raises a number of unresolved analytical issues. What constitutes the knowledge base? At what level can we locate and define a knowledge base? What are the specificities of local and sector specific knowledge bases? How stable is the knowledge base? In order to approach an answer to these questions three different themes are introduced: first, basic concepts related to knowledge and learning; second, the contribution of economic analysis to the understanding of the production, mediation and use of knowledge; and third, new economic trends and the formation of a “learning economy.”