Innovation Systems - Do they exist? Exploring Luhmanns thinking

Following Nelson and Winter’s (1982) evolutionary critique of neoclassical view of technical change and economic growth, there appeared an abundant literature on National Innovation Systems (NIS) putting an emphasis on learning processes and institutions as important factors that shape the specific dynamics of growth in each country. Some scholars extended the discussion to sub-national territories, thereby giving origin to a new approach to regional development based on the concept of Regional Innovation Systems (RIS). Production and transfer of knowledge, and the role of institutions, are two major research domains in those strands of economics literature. However, the first one is largely dominated by H. Simon’ cognitivism, which is under serious critique from an interactivist-constructivist perspective; the second is mostly descriptive, lacking a theoretical discussion about the ontology of institutions. The paper critically discusses the theoretical assumptions usually adopted in the IS literature, and proposes conceptual alternatives. The latter provide a theoretical framework more close to the sociological research and lead to serious doubts that innovation processes organise into systems.

Advances and challenges in innovation studies

The article discusses recent advances and future challenges in innovation studies. First, it separately considers four main strands of research, studying innovation at the organisational, systemic, sectoral and macroeconomic levels. Then, considering the field as a whole, the article points to the existence of important neglected topics and methodological challenges for future research. In fact, several fundamental issues are still unexplored, such as the co-evolution between technological and institutional change; the role of demand; and the impacts of innovation on individual and collective welfare. There are also important methodological challenges, such as the need for more systematic interactions between the different levels of analysis; the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of technological and institutional changes; and the search for a combination of contingent explanations based on case studies with general analytical results based on econometric and formal models.Innovation; Innovation management; innovation systems; innovation and growth

Drivers of Globalization: An Evolutionary Perspective on Firm-State Relations in the Asian Newly Industrialized Economies

The emergence of firms from the Asian Newly Industrialized Economies (NIEs) in the global economy during the past two decades has been phenomenal. Many pundits have attributed the competitive success of these Asian NIE firms and their home economies to the relentless efforts of the so-called developmental states. They argue that state initiatives such as active industrial policy and financial support have enabled these "national champions" to venture into and compete successfully in the global economy. This statist approach to the globalization of Asian firms and their home economies, however, has unfortunately ignored the complex and dynamic evolutionary nature of firm-state relations within the changing context of economic globalization. Drawing upon an institutional and evolutionary theory of change and adjustments, I aim to explain how the global emergence of Asian firms cannot be simply read off from and explained by their embeddedness in the developmental state. Since the 1990s, these Asian firms have strategically disembedded from state apparatus and successfully reembedded themselves in dynamic global production networks. This shift of strategic partnership of Asian firms from firm-state to firm-firm networks has profound implications for our understanding of the present and future trajectories of regional economies in Asia. It presages the demise of the developmental state as the primary driver of economic change and growth in Asian economies. In developing my conceptualization of changing firm-state relations, this paper draws upon several emerging and interrelated research frontiers in economic geography that call for more theoretical attention to trans-local actors and processes, evolutionary dynamics of change, and institutional contexts.Firm-state relations, evolutionary dynamics, globalization, selection environment, global production networks

Concluding Chapter: Globalisation and Innovation Policy

The concluding chapter of the “Small Country Innovation Systems” book develops a comparative analysis that deals with only a very few of the many issues addressed empirically by the ten country case studies. The concluding chapter focuses to some extent on issues related to globalization, but devotes most of its attention to innovation policy. The chapter is intended as a contribution to the comparative analysis of NSIs, conceived in the spirit of ‘appreciative theorizing’.Globalization; Innovation Policy; comparative analysis

The implications of growing cross-border interdependence for systems of innovation

Taking a multi-disciplinary approach, this paper highlights the importance of takinginto account the role of non-domestic elements in an innovation system, which is traditionallystudied by using the nation-state as the unit of analysis. Learning and knowledge accumulationis often assisted by inward and outward FDI, although this is sometimes overlooked in thestudy of innovation systems. Multi-level, multi-country interactions within a modernknowledge based economy means that firms are not always constrained by the limitations oftheir domestic resources. Nonetheless, there are factors that constrain and pre-determine theextent to which firms and locations can benefit from external knowledge sources, be theydomestic or foreign.economics of technology ;

The links between international production and innovation: a double network approach

This paper examines the changing role of multinationals in the global generation, adoption and transfer of innovation. It is argued that the combination of traditional asset exploiting objectives with increasing asset seeking activities entails a transition of multinationals towards a double network structure. On the one hand multinationals are more and more characterised by the interconnection of a large number of internal units that are deeply involved in the company’s use, generation and absorption of knowledge. On the other hand, units belonging to the internal network tend to develop external networks with other firms and institutions that are located outside the boundaries of the multinational firm, in order to increase the potential for use, generation and absorption of knowledge. Extending the analysis to a more general level, it is suggested that each of the external actors with which multinationals are interconnected across countries are themselves involved in extensive webs of relationships with other firms and institutions. By becoming embedded in different local contexts, multinational firms act as bridging institutions connecting a number of geographically dispersed economic and innovation systems. As a result, they are conditioned by, and contribute to, the evolution of different contexts in which they operate.innovation, multinational firms, networks.

States and Firms on the Periphery: The Challenges of a Globalising World

A key feature of globalisation has been the growth and spread of multinational enterprises (MNEs), but there is here is considerable evidence that MNEs do not regard all locations as being equivalent. MNE activity both to and from peripheral economies differs from MNE activity associated with core economies. We discuss how and why multinational enterprises may differ in their investment behaviour from and to peripheral economies, from the point of view of both states and firms. We also provide an overview of the policy issues associated with the peripheral nature of these economies per se, as well of the policy issues associated with MNEs that invest into and from peripheral economies. Inter alia, we argue that market forces cannot fully substitute for the role of governments in developing and promoting a proactive industrial policy.Multinational Enterprises, Foreign Direct Investment, Industrial Policy, Organizational Behavior