Building systems of innovation in less developed countries: The role of intermediate organizations (original) (raw)
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2003
Network building among academia, firms, and government aiming at mobilising scientific and technological knowledge to meet solutions to specific problems of the productive sectors and eventually to stimulate the innovation process, is a subject that deserves analytical and theoretical attention from an innovation analysis perspective, particularly in the South and more specifically in Latin America. As is well known, these countries have weak innovation systems and S&T capabilities built within the academic sector that are characterised by a lack of coordination among different agents, which limits innovation activities.
The Role of Institutions and Linkages in Learning and Innovation
This paper presents the evolutionary meaning, rationale and context of institutions and the linkages that have been necessary to stimulate learning and innovation. Institutions and institutional change are central to driving learning and innovation. The processes of innovation do not end at the point of its creation. Linkages are important in the spread and diffusion of stocks of knowledge, which not only act as building blocks for new stocks of knowledge but also are synergized further through creative duplication and accumulation into new stocks of knowledge. Where linking with multinationals has figured strongly leveraging has had a strong influence on upgrading. Also important has been the role of meso-organizations that were subject to stringent institutions.
Organizations, Networks, & Learning: A Sociological View
Aston University Business School, Research Paper Series, RP9933, 1999
In this paper I try to relate the concept of organizational learning to the recent literature on industrial districts and innovation networks. The network literature so far has not applied findings from organizational learning to network learning in a straightforward way. Usually, learning is equated with innovation and 'absorptive capacity'. However, the same virtues that distinguish networks from ordinary market exchange may turn into vices which stifle the innovative process. Especially core firms in industrial sectors seem to be prone to ...
Developing National Systems of Innovation
Developing National Systems of Innovation, 2015
Economic development in countries behind the technological frontier requires innovation both by firms, and by farms, hospitals, and other organizations that provide goods and services. This is not innovation in the sense of introducing something new to the world economy, but of introducing something new to the particular context. In general, in economies that are significantly behind the frontier and that are aiming to catch up, the new practices put in place by firms tend to be modelled on practices that have been employed for some time by firms at the frontier. However, empirical research shows clearly that innovation of this kind has many of the attributes of innovation at the frontier. A large share of these efforts fails. Success generally requires a considerable amount of learning by the firms by doing and using before they acquire the needed capabilities. This view of the process through which developing economies acquire increased capabilities to produce goods and services is relatively new among economists who study the process. Traditionally, economists have focused on the investments needed. They saw the problem of mastering new ways of doing things as mostly involving "technology transfer", a term that played down the difficult learning processes involved. In the early writings of development economists on the need for firm learning, the focus was on what the firms themselves needed to do. More recently, there has been growing recognition that firms are part of a community of organizations and institutions whose interactions affect the direction and efficacy of learning. The concept of an "innovation system," which for some time has been employed by scholars of innovation in advanced industrial countries, is now more often used to denote and characterize the complex collection of actors and interactions that are involved in innovation in countries behind the frontiers and striving to catch up. The research projects in this book focus on a particular part of the workings of innovation systems: the interactions between universities and public laboratories and firms, and how these interactions affect the efficacy of the efforts of firms to acquire new capabilities. In recent years, the relationships between universities and firms, and how these relationships x Developing national systems of innovation xi Acknowledgements We would like to thank Professor Richard Nelson and his Catch Up Project for the tremendous incentive and help provided for this research. Our international research is a child of the Catch Up Project. Launched at Columbia University in May 2005, the Catch Up Project provided the first opportunity for researchers from 12 countries and three continents to make contact and exchange information about a potential research project. In September 2006 in Milan, the Catch Up Project held a meeting hosted by Franco Malerba to improve the project proposal for presentation to the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Professor Richard Nelson always helped our theoretical and empirical discussions, and generously used his knowledge to improve our proposals. We would like to thank IDRC and its Research on Knowledge Systems (RoKS) Program for funding our research in three continents and 12 countries. The guidance, help, and enthusiasm provided by Jean Woo, since the RoKS Workshop in Ho Chi Minh City in January 2007 and during all phases of our research, were very important for our work. In addition, the Globelics network provided opportunities for our groups to come together in South Africa, Mexico, and Argentina to both organize our research and present preliminary results. Funding from IDRC helped attract other funding sources in many countries. We would like to thank the Mexican agency Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), the Argentine agencies Consejo
Systems of Innovation and Underdevelopment
Science, Technology and Society, 2006
This article examines institutions and their role in supporting technical change as part of the development process, and asks how institutions shape the system of innovation (SI). The context of underdevelopment exhibits distinct system characteristics that differ markedly from those found under advanced economic conditions and as such deserves close empirical scrutiny. SIs differ significantly under the two sets of conditions, leading to uneven structural changes. The article, therefore, explores what functions must be served by systems in developing countries in order to generate technical dynamism. To compare different contexts, it introduces the idea of a ‘system of learning innovation in development’ (SLID) that emphasises individual and organisational competence building. The differences between ‘advanced’ systems of innovation (ASI) and two types of SLID are discussed. Infrastructure, one of the key components of institutions involved in development, is used as an illustratio...
Collaboration Networks for Innovation and socio- economic Development
International cooperation and knowledge transfer among countries has become increasingly important in the last decades, giving opportunity to a set of multiple interaction programs particularly amongst developed and developing regions. This paper discusses the feasibility of the adoption of Digital Ecosystems (DEs) in the Latin American context, based on the experience of deployment of DEs in the European Union. Different deployment experiences in the European context revealed the need of a methodology for planning and implementing DEs that resulted in a set of tools for measuring the maturity grade of localities related to the deployment of DEs and the need of an impact index for understanding its long-term implications of the dynamics of their implementation. The replication of these methodologies in the Latin American context revealed their limitations and the need for their adaptation. This resulted in the construction of a new methodological framework that integrates concepts related to ICT adoption, connectivity and absorption capacities and recognises the strong influence of social capital over these. The paper discusses the methodological challenges related to the definition of the relevant categories of analysis, their articulation, and the issues around the construction of appropriate indicators that must have to be applicable and comparable for both contexts. The paper concludes on the need of the methodological appropriation on knowledge exchange practices and frameworks related to Digital Ecosystems research in the Latin American context.