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ItemBridging innovation system research and development studies: challenges and research opportunities(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-10-08) Lundvall, Bengt-Åke ; Vang, Jan ; Joseph, K. J. ; Chaminade, CristinaThis paper links innovation system analysis to economic development. Both fields are young and interdisciplinary. The origins of research on innovation systems goes back to the early 1980s (Freeman 1982, Lundvall 1985, Freeman 1987) although it links to several predecessors such as Babbage (1832, 3rd edition), List (1941) or Marshall (1965). Development economics, on the other hand, took off in the 1940s (Rosenstein-Rodan 1943) but, since then, it has been going through so many dramatic changes that yet cannot be characterised as a ‘mature’ field. In the recent years, particularly in the framework of Globelics, there has been a renewed interest on applying the innovation system concept in developing countries. However, some critical questions remained unanswered: Is innovation system a useful concept for understanding and explaining what goes on in a developing country? Can it be used as a tool and a framework for agents and agencies in charge of designing public policy and business innovation strategies? The assumption behind this paper is that we can answer a conditional ‘yes’ to both of these questions and in the first part of this paper we try to specify the conditions and we do so in a dialogue with critiques developed within the community of evolutionary and development scholars. Another important question is how the approach fits into the historical and current trends in development economics. In the second part of the paper we give a brief assessment of how development economics has evolved and we draw some lessons for a research strategy. We will argue that the crisis of the first generation of development economics that was represented by scholars such as Nurkse, Myrdal, Hirschman, Singer and Sen has left a void in development economics that cannot be filled neither by mainstream neoclassical economics nor by ‘new growth theory’. We see the innovation system approach as a serious candidate to fill this void. The paper is structured as follows. In the next section we review the concept of innovation system (in dialogue with other alternative concepts like national learning systems), the different forms of studying innovation systems and the critical dimensions to consider when studying innovation systems, particularly in developing countries. Section 3 reviews the recent evolution of Development Economics, pointing out to the main weakness of this discipline, particularly when it comes to the analysis of the factors underlying under-development. Section 4 proposes and discusses how innovation system research can contribute to development economics and vice-versa. The paper concludes highlighting the main research gaps in innovation systems and development and proposes a future research agenda in this topic.
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ItemInnovation policies for development: towards a systemic experimentation based approach(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-10-07) Chaminade, Cristina ; Lundvall, Bengt-Åke ; Vang-Lauridsen, Jan ; Joseph, K. J.This paper sheds light on how to address, conceptualize and design innovation policies taking into account the specific characteristics of innovation systems in developing countries. The main purpose is to reflect on the policy implications of adopting the innovation system perspective to the particularities of developing countries. It is only recently that the concept of innovation has entered the development discourse and subsequently the agenda of policy-makers in developing countries and international aid organizations (UNCTAD 2007, UNIDO 2007, Farley et al. 2007). Implementing innovation policies in developing countries has proved to be a challenging task. Academics, development practitioners and policy-makers are still struggling with understanding how to conceptualize innovation in developing countries, identifying who are the beneficiaries of innovation processes and more generally conceptualizing innovation system policies in the South (Lundvall et al, 2006; Borras et al, 2008; Intarakumnerd and Chaminade, 2007). Furthermore, in designing innovation policies, policy makers often lack tools for identifying problems in the system and for selecting policies supporting innovation and competence building to tackle them. Innovation systems in developing countries are very heterogeneous. Each system is embedded in a unique socio-economic institutional context and, in this sense, it is not possible to identify innovation policies that could be applied to all developing countries. Neither is this the purpose of this paper. However, the growing literature of innovation systems in developing countries suggests that innovation systems in developing countries differ from the mature innovation systems that we might find in the developed economies. Substantial differences in components and relationships indicate that just imitating innovation policies practiced in developed countries is unlikely to deliver the expected results. The purpose of this paper is to point out to the main differences between (most) innovation systems in developing countries and (most) innovation systems in developed countries and discuss the implications that these differences have for the identification of problems and opportunities. There are different analytical frameworks for the identification of these problems. As opposed to the market-failure model proposed by the neoclassical analysis (Arrow, 1962) scholars in the system of innovation approach, propose to focus on systemic failures (Smith, 2000, Woolthuis et al, 2005, Chaminade and Edquist, 2006). In this paper we investigate how far this framework is useful for designing innovation policies in developing countries. The reminder of this paper is structured as follows: First, we explain why innovation policy is relevant in developing countries. Then, we introduce what is meant by systemic problems, and apply the concept to developing countries. One of our main conclusions is the need to combine the concept of systemic failures with a pragmatic experimental approach. The main features of such experimental approach are presented in the last section of the paper.
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ItemChina's system and vision of innovation: analysis of the national medium- and long-term science and technology development plan (2006-2020)(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-09) Gu, Shulin ; Liu, Ju ; Lundvall, Bengt-Åke ; Schwaag Serger, SylviaChina has been characterised by extremely high rates of economic growth for the last several decades. This growth originates from a transformation of the institutional set up giving more room for regional initiative, private ownership and use of market mechanisms. Regional political resources have been aligned to globally oriented market resources and this alignment has established a very specific and unique mechanism of capital accumulation resulting in extremely high savings and investment rates. The downside of this growth model is its intensive exploitation of human and natural resources. While the rate of capital accumulation is extremely high (40-50% of GNP takes the form of gross savings and investment) non reproducible natural and social capital are suffering in the process of growth. Social and regional inequality has reached critical levels and so have ecological imbalances. The central leadership of China are aware of these problems and recent policy documents put strong emphasis on ‘harmonious development’ and ‘independent innovation’ (Gu and Lundvall 2006). In China the transformation of the national innovation system is now regarded as a major step toward a necessary renewal of the growth model. This paper presents a general framework for the analysis of national innovation system, a historical overview over the development of China’s production and innovation system and ends up with a discussion of the National Medium- and Long-term Science and Technology Development Plan (2006-2020). We conclude that the plan represents steps forward in important respects. This is true for the emphasis on need driven innovation policy with focus on energy and environment, the stronger role for enterprises as hosts of R&D-efforts and innovation, a more active role for public procurement and a more realistic understanding of the limits of science as source of innovation. But the plan has some weaknesses and needs to be complemented with other initiatives. There is exaggerated technology optimism and the need for institutional and organisational change at the level of the enterprise is underestimated. In some cases the policy instruments and tools seem to be inadequate when related to the very ambitious targets set by the plan. Especially problematic is the absence of an explicit analysis of the regional dimension and the need to upgrade working life in terms of skills and organisation. The fact that a knowledge based strategy, if left to itself, leads to further social and regional polarisation is not taken into account. Finally how the idea of ‘indigenous innovation’ will be implemented is crucial both for the success of the plan and for China’s relationships with the rest of the world.
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ItemDevelopmental university systems: empirical, analytical and normative perspectives(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-09) Brundenius, Claes ; Lundvall, Bengt-Åke ; Sutz, JudithIt has become almost trivial to assert that in the knowledge society universities are important institutions. This consensus notwithstanding, questions like in what sense and for whom those institutions are important are far from receiving unanimous answers. Should the major function be to promote higher education in order to serve all sectors of society or should the emphasis be to engage in research and what are the relationships between the two types of activities? And what should a ‘third mission’ encompass: A broad interaction with society or just an interaction with the business sector aiming at promoting technical innovation in high technology. Debates are particularly entangled in developing countries, partly due to a strong presence of international advice alongside the positions held by local actors, partly due to the level of the challenges that such countries and their universities are facing. Both in the developed and the developing countries the main emphasis is now on how universities may serve industry through direct flows of information from on-going research. To illustrate, in a recent book with the title ‘How Universities Promote Economic Growth’ edited by World Bank Economists (Yusuf and Nabeshima 2007) the only dimension covered is the formation of university-industry links related to research. But it is obvious that universities contribute to economic growth and development through other mechanisms, not least through the flow of graduates into the labor market. It is also important to see how universities share functions and responsibilities with other institutions involved in knowledge production and knowledge diffusion. This implies that the most relevant level of analysis may be, not the single university, but the ‘university system’ seen as an integrated element in a broader national innovation system.