Research Outlook Innovations Research Trends In Economics

'The book is quite valuable, with its broad international coverage of state activities in the area of research and innovation support. It should also foster serious debates on the balance between public and private efforts in research and innovation.' - Mats Benner, Journal of Economic Literature '. . . this book provides the reader with a valuable summary of national public policy approaches to research and innovation at the end of the twentieth century and is a useful addition to the shelves of industrial policy experts.' - David Gray, Entrepreneurship and Innovation The book analyses the evolution of research and innovation policies in the world's leading countries. The last decade has witnessed a radical transformation of the landscape shaped after World War II, as described in the seminal collection edited by Richard Nelson in the early 1990s. Even though national systems have inherited different institutional arrangements and trajectories, analyses show three major converging trends in their public policies. There has been a retraction from support to large firms and programmes and a shift toward small to medium enterprises and the innovation infrastructure; the focus on public research and training capabilities is growing; and there has been a redesign of public intervention with the growing role of regions and states on one hand and multinational authorities on the other, particularly in the European Union.

Scientific theories are representational spaces in which we model the world. Therefore, science undergoes periodic paradigm shifts instead of progressing in a linear and continuous way: paradigm shifts occur when old paradigms show their inadequacy and ineffectiveness. What is defined as research is revaluated, concepts turn upside down and earlier research is reinterpreted. Covid-19 brought to the fore the rise of a new paradigm that in 2016 the sociologist Ulrich Beck understood and framed as ‘metamorphosis of the world’ (Beck 2016). Global risks (climate change, resource depletion, migrations) distribute forms of social inequalities that often escape the traditional interpretative categories of the mainstream economy (class, nation etc.) and normative concepts like sustainable development. In this perspective, the regional scale (in social studies and policies) is crucial. Risks are assuming, in fact, different geographies in relation to the different territorial morphologies or social inequalities involved. To what extent this paradigm shift is challenging either mainstream economics or our critical thinking and awareness as social scientists? Despite a body of studies that, until the first half of the twentieth century, had not taken into account the variables of time and space in their analysis of development, places are taken in their specificity as the founding element for describing (and for some authors, interpreting) the constraints and opportunities of regions for their historical, cultural, and socioeconomic conditions. The neoclassical theory of growth, based on the model of the Nobel laureate Robert Solow, expunges the spatial variable and is then gradually questioned in favour of the endogenous regional development approach (Stimson et al. 2011). Over time, places take on the role of a favourable (or unfavourable) environment for business, making possible the creation of external economies (or diseconomies), and giving rise to specific forms of cooperation between companies and societal actors. At least to some authors, what produces development and innovation in certain successful regions is, in this sense, not the assertion of a single company, but the competitiveness of the entire territory, expressed through the synergies between institutions and socioeconomic actors. These synergies are the basis of the processes of accumulation of knowledge and the dissemination of information and opportunities useful for supporting development in the context of effective planning (Dessein J. Battaglini E. and Horlings L. 2016). The 20 cases described in this book are stemming from the debate raised by the International Conference on Research Outlook, Innovations and Research Trends (ICROIRT-2020). They are highlighting the time-space dimension affecting economic structures, and the ways in which socioeconomic use material and immaterial resources, mediate practices and institutions and construct narratives and identities, pointing to how assign value to their resources and thus influencing regional economics. During a paradigm shift like which we are confronting, facts are uncertain, top down economic receipts in dispute and decisions urgent. The Covid-19 crisis has already put at risk all organizations or companies that have basked in roles, position rents or narratives that have shown resistance, including ideological ones, to the metamorphosis of the world underway. We will now see what we can do: as either individuals, or organisations and institutions we are all responsibly involved. We would like to thank all the contributors who have made the production of this book so fascinating and enjoyable. Their scholarship and dedicated commitment and motivation to ‘getting it right’ are the keys to the book’s quality, and we greatly appreciate their good nature over many months in the face of our editorial demands and time limits. We are also grateful for using their texts, ideas, and critical remarks. We would also like to thank Prof Dr Alimnazar Islamkov, Dr R Shanthi , all reviewers and all authors for their help in consolidating the interdisciplinary of the book

In immediate responses to the COVID-19 crisis, science and innovation are playing essential roles in providing a better scientific understanding of the virus, as well as in the development of vaccines, treatments and diagnostics. Both the public and private sectors have poured billions of dollars into these efforts, accompanied by unprecedented levels of global cooperation.

Scholars in the science and technology field have not collectively questioned, much less proposed, an agenda for policy makers. Now is an appropriate time for such an undertaking. First, there is a growing belief that the U.S. national research and development system, like that of many industrial nations, is changing due to global competitive pressures and advancements in information technology and electronic commerce. Second, industry's R&D relationship with the academic research community is changing not only because of the global competition but also because of alterations in the level of government support of fundamental research. As a result, policy makers will need to rethink their approaches to science and technology issues. This volume is a collection of essays by scholars about innovative policy in the knowledge-based economy. By knowledge-based economy we mean one for which economic growth is based on the creation, distribution, and use of technology. As such, innovation policy in such an economy must enhance the creation, distribution, and use of knowledge that leads to the creation, distribution, and use of technology. This volume considers elements of an innovation policy: innovation policy and academic research, innovation policy in electronic commerce, and innovation policy and globalization issues.

During the past few decades, the interest of economists in the sources of long-term economic growth has led an increasing number of them to focus on the role of innovation in creating that growth. Although some researchers have always been interested in this topic, the groundbreaking work of Solow (1957), Nelson (1959) and Arrow (1962) made many other economists recognize the central role played by innovation in almost all spheres of economic activity. The Economics and Econometrics of Innovation presents a valuable overview of the work of the world's most renowned experts in the field of innovation and technical change. It collects 22 outstanding contributions that reflect the results of the vast, worldwide research efforts and remind us of the importance of economic incentives in shaping and directing innovative activities. The volume presents an edited selection of papers that were first presented at the 10th International ADRES conference. One particular goal of this book is to bring out the complementary nature of the various approaches to innovation, and to facilitate in-depth dialogues both between microeconomists and macroeconomists, and between theoreticians and econometricians. General topics that are considered range from the economy-wide effects of innovation on growth and employment to the variation of individual firm innovative performance; from the analysis of networks and standardization to the role of intellectual property rights and the assessment of knowledge spillovers. Besides the wealth of information presented in the chapters, readers of this volume will also appreciate the value of examining a single question from different angles and by using different methods.

Innovation is increasingly recognized as a vitally important social and economic phenomenon worthy of serious research study. The book, written by leading contributors to the field, examines the state of the art and achievements in the relatively new field of Innovation Studies, as well as what future challenges lie ahead.

A systematic comparison of the institutions and incentive systems governing the processes of technological invention, innovation and diffusion in advanced market and centrally planned economies.