Dynamising National Innovation Systems

Synthesising the results of a multi-year OECD project on national innovation systems (NIS), this publication demonstrates how the NIS approach can be implemented in designing and implementing more efficient technology and innovation policies.

This book analyses the role of networks in innovation and technology diffusion. It reviews policy initiatives to promote efficient networking in selected OECD countries, and draws the main implications for public policy.

This study surveys the manner in which 17 different countries have evolved systems for technological innovation. Methods are compared not only in large, industrialized nations, but also in developing countries and smaller nations with high incomes.

This study defines the aims and tools of a new innovation policy and identifies examples of good policy practice recently implemented in OECD countries.

Since its emergence in the 1980s the national innovation system (NIS) concept has become widely used by scholars and policymakers alike. In the course of its rapid diffusion it has provoked controversy on fundamental issues. Where did NIS emerge? What is the theoretical core of the concept? Is it actually a scientific concept or simply a buzz-word? How useful is it in terms of low income countries? How does the national innovation system relate to economic, social and environmental sustainable development? Is it meaningful to study national systems in a globalizing economy? What are the legitimate policy implications? This book provides an in depth analysis of all these questions as well as recommending future avenues of research.

Policies to stimulate innovation at national and local levels must both build on and contribute to the dynamics of innovative clusters. This book presents a series of papers written by policy makers and academic experts in the field, that demonstrate why and how this can be done.

Focusing on North America, Innovation Systems in a Global Context examines the nature of existing systems of innovation in the United States, Canada, and Mexico; the conceptual questions surrounding the analysis of such systems; trends towards the creation of supranational systems in East Asia, Europe, and North America; and some of the ecological, cultural, economic, and social problems confronting these large-scale systems.