Non-technological regulatory effects: Implications for innovation and innovation policy

This paper considers the link between public policy and innovation and contributes to the notion that public policies that do not directly address innovation carry along important implications for it. It explores the role of regulation for innovation and innovation policy by emphasizing the importance of non-technological regulatory effects for innovation and their potential as an input for innovation policy. The output of in depth interviews with stakeholders from the detergents industry is combined with various sources of secondary data and reveals a variety of non-technological novelties attributed to regulation that are relevant to innovation. These results are then matched against the objectives of innovation policy, an exercise that gives better insights on the policy links between regulation and innovation policy and concludes on the domains of complementarities between the two. We find that that regulatory policy can contribute to the achievement of targets set by innovation policy while innovation policy measures can facilitate the compensation of negative regulatory implications for innovation.     

National Systems of Entrepreneurship: Measurement issues and policy implications

We introduce a novel concept of National Systems of Entrepreneurship and provide an approach to characterizing them. National Systems of Entrepreneurship are fundamentally resource allocation systems that are driven by individual-level opportunity pursuit, through the creation of new ventures, with this activity and its outcomes regulated by country-specific institutional characteristics. In contrast with the institutional emphasis of the National Systems of Innovation frameworks, where institutions engender and regulate action, National Systems of Entrepreneurship are driven by individuals, with institutions regulating who acts and the outcomes of individual action. Building on these principles, we also introduce a novel index methodology to characterize National Systems of Entrepreneurship. The distinctive features of the methodology are: (1) systemic approach, which allows interactions between components of National Systems of Entrepreneurship; (2) the Penalty for Bottleneck feature, which identifies bottleneck factors that hold back system performance; (3) contextualization, which recognizes that national entrepreneurship processes are always embedded in a given country's institutional framework.     

Three frames for innovation policy: R&D,systems of innovation and transformative change

Science, technology and innovation (STI) policy is shaped by persistent framings that arise from historical context. Two established frames are identified as co-existing and dominant in contemporary innovation policy discussions. The first frame is identified as beginning with a Post-World War II institutionalisation of government support for science and R&D with the presumption that this would contribute to growth and address market failure in private provision of new knowledge. The second frame emerged in the 1980s globalising world and its emphasis on competitiveness which is shaped by the national systems of innovation for knowledge creation and commercialisation. STI policy focuses on building links, clusters and networks, and on stimulating learning between elements in the systems, and enabling entrepreneurship. A third frame linked to contemporary social and environmental challenges such as the Sustainable Development Goals and calling for transformative change is identified and distinguished from the two earlier frames. Transformation refers to socio-technical system change as conceptualised in the sustainability transitions literature. The nature of this third framing is examined with the aim of identifying its key features and its potential for provoking a re-examination of the earlier two frames. One key feature is its focus on experimentation, and the argument that the Global South does not need to play catch-up to follow the transformation model of the Global North. It is argued that all three frames are relevant for policymaking, but exploring options for transformative innovation policy should be a priority.     

Regulatory policy, value of knowledge assets and innovation strategy: The case of the Orphan Drug Act

The U.S. Orphan Drug Act provides R&D incentives to drug-makers that go beyond statutory patent protection. The study explores the act's effect on financial returns to innovation and on the strategy of orphan drug development. Results indicate that the financial return to orphan drug development is positive. The findings suggest that when market size is small and cumulative innovation is an important phenomenon the policy that extends effective patent duration or subsidizes R&D activity improves incentives to innovate.     

Foresight for public procurement and regional innovation policy: The case of Lombardy

Public procurement can be a major source of innovation. The potential benefits of public procurement might be fully exploited through the acquisition not only of appliances which are already available in the market, but also of new appliances which are tailored to the specific needs of the local community and might be exported as well to the international markets. In this way, public procurement might allow to improve the services delivered to the local community and to increase the technological competitiveness of the local industrial and research system. In this context, regional foresight might help identify both long-term societal needs and the patterns of evolution of emerging technologies that can match these needs. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate, trough the recent experience of the regional government of Lombardy, the role of foresight for enhancing public procurement and innovation policy at the regional level.     

Driving innovation: Public policy and human capital

Human capital, the set of skills, knowledge, capabilities and attributes embodied in people, is crucial to firms’ capacity to absorb and organize knowledge and to innovate. Research on human capital has traditionally focused on education and training. A concern with the motivationally-relevant elements of human capital such as employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and willingness to change in the workplace (all of which have been shown to drive innovation), has often been overlooked in economic research and by public policy interventions to date. The paper addresses this gap in two ways: First, by studying firms’ human resource systems that can enhance these elements of human capital, and second, using the results of this research as a springboard for a public policy program targeted at elements of human capital that have been ignored by traditional education and training interventions. Using a sample of 1070 employee-managers in Ireland, we apply a series of probit regressions to understand how different human resources systems influence the probability of employee-managers reporting the motivationally-relevant elements of human capital. The research: (1) Finds that respondents in organizations with certain human resource systems are more likely to report motivationally-relevant elements of human capital. Specifically, employee-managers in organizations with proactive work practices and that consult with their employee-managers increase the predicted probability of reporting that they are satisfied with their job, willing to change, and are committed to the organization; (2) Highlights the need to consider the role of policy interventions to support the motivationally-relevant elements of human capital; (3) Proposes a new policy program offer to support the motivationally-relevant elements of human capital in order to increase firms’ innovation activity.     

The evolving nature of Taiwan's national innovation system: The case of biotechnology innovation networks

The dynamics of national innovation systems (NISs) are a source of considerable academic and policy interest, especially when to address new competitive challenges they involve changing institutions and relationships within successful systems. This paper examines the case of Taiwan which is embarking on a new phase in its approach to building its national innovative capacity through creating the infrastructure for a biotechnology industry. By examining the process and mechanisms by which new biotechnology innovation networks are being created, and contrasting their development with existing networks, we analyse the dynamics of Taiwan's NIS. The paper reviews the prospects for this new phase in Taiwan's transition from ‘imitation’ to ‘innovation’. The paper aims to add to the understanding of how innovation systems evolve. It is concerned with the contributors, processes and challenges of NIS evolution and the form and meaning of its dynamic changes.     

Socio-political factors and the failure of innovation policy in Croatia as a country in transition

This paper discusses the roles of socio-political factors and related public policies in the economic growth of Croatia, as well as their influence on its transition to a knowledge economy (KE). The Croatian experience might help to understand transition processes in other Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). This paper argues that Croatia has failed to capitalize on its inherited science base, which could have been used as a starting point in the transition towards a KE, because it has not made the shift from an obsolete socialist-style science policy to a modern innovation policy (IP); the latter is seen as the new policy paradigm necessary for structural adjustment to a KE.Covert socio-political growth factors shaped by the country-specific historical heritage of Croatia have prevented the recognition of the need for structural adjustment to the new technology regime, and have led to the belief that the IP is not only irrelevant but is also a relict of the state interventionism inherited from socialism, which was the most serious obstacle to policy reform.Examples drawn from the development of the IP and the National System of Innovation (NSI) in Croatia, which shares the socialist model of science policy and the socio-political context of the transition towards a market economy with other CEECs, can help to explain the failure of the IP. In the Croatian case, the decisive factors were the social state of so-called “semi-modernism” and the governance of the so-called “de-industrializing elite”.This paper concludes that the transition of a CEEC from a market economy to a KE requires a serious re-design of development policy, the effectiveness of which depends on social change determined by the political recognition and social assimilation of the new technological regime. In this sense, the current paper contributes to the understanding of the roles of social capital and governance in the economic growth of post-socialist countries.     

Innovation policy for system-wide transformation: The case of strategic innovation programmes (SIPs) in Sweden

The orientation towards grand societal challenges can be seen as a new wave or paradigm for innovation policy. Such policy aims at system-wide transformation and is often referred to as system innovation policy. While insights from transition studies have provided novel and useful rationales for innovation policy targeting system-wide transformation, it remains unclear how to design, implement and evaluate such policies. The contribution of this paper is to translate and concretize the challenges of system innovation policy towards scope for policy action and analysis. Building on insights from transition studies we group the challenges into four domains: directionality, experimentation, demand articulation, and policy coordination and learning. We relate challenges within the four domains to three generic features of innovation systems: interests and capabilities of actors, networks, and institutions. The derived framework is applied in a case study on the strategic innovation programmes, a recent policy initiative by Vinnova, Sweden’s Innovation Agency, targeting system innovation.     

The evolution of science policy and innovation studies

This article examines the origins and evolution of the field of science policy and innovation studies (SPIS). Like other studies in this Special Issue, it seeks to systematically identify the key intellectual developments in the field over the last 50 years by analysing the publications that have been highly cited by other researchers. The analysis reveals how the emerging field of SPIS drew upon a growing range of disciplines in the late 1950s and 1960s, and how the relationship with these disciplines evolved over time. Around the mid-1980s, substantial parts of SPIS started to coalesce into a more coherent field centred on the adoption of an evolutionary (or neo-Schumpeterian) economics framework, an interactive model of the innovation process, and (a little later) the concept of ‘systems of innovation’ and the resource-based view of the firm. The article concludes with a discussion of whether SPIS is perhaps in the early stages of becoming a discipline.     

政府补助、探索式创新意愿与企业市场竞争力的关系研究

基于2010—2017年的153家A股上市公司为研究样本,实证分析政府补助、探索式创新意愿与企业市场竞争力间的关系。研究表明,政府补助对企业市场竞争力有显著的正向影响;政府补助对企业的探索式创新意愿有显著的正向影响;企业的探索式创新意愿在政府补助与企业市场竞争力间存在部分中介作用。考虑到CEO心理特征在企业经营决策中的重要影响,将CEO自恋这一心理特征变量同时纳入模型,研究表明CEO自恋水平在政府补助对探索式创新意愿的关系间会起到助推作用。为政府补助的配置效率提供新的解释,也为企业选聘CEO的过程中提供积极的指导。     

Policy mixes for sustainability transitions: New approaches and insights through bridging innovation and policy studies

There has been an increasing interest in science, technology and innovation policy studies in the topic of policy mixes. While earlier studies conceptualised policy mixes mainly in terms of combinations of instruments to support innovation, more recent literature extends the focus to how policy mixes can foster sustainability transitions. For this, broader policy mix conceptualisations have emerged which also include considerations of policy goals and policy strategies; policy mix characteristics such as consistency, coherence, credibility and comprehensiveness; as well as policy making and implementation processes. It is these broader conceptualisations of policy mixes which are the subject of the special issue introduced in this article. We aim at supporting the emergence of a new strand of interdisciplinary social science research on policy mixes which combines approaches, methods and insights from innovation and policy studies to further such broader policy mix research with a specific focus on fostering sustainability transitions. In this article we introduce this topic and present a bibliometric analysis of the literature on policy mixes in both fields as well as their emerging connections. We also introduce five major themes in the policy mix literature and summarise the contributions made by the articles in the special issue to these: methodological advances; policy making and implementation; actors and agency; evaluating policy mixes; and the co-evolution of policy mixes and socio-technical systems. We conclude by summarising key insights for policy making.     

Russia's innovation policy: Stubborn path-dependencies and new approaches

For the last twenty years Russia has been struggling to turn itself into an efficient market economy. Innovation and technological development are considered to be one of the best ways to achieve impressive results. The country has succeeded in retaining certain strengths of the Soviet science and technology system but it has often failed to address the former weaknesses and emerging challenges. There are a number of external and internal factors that make reforms inevitable and urgent. In the last five-six years the political leadership has started an unprecedented attempt to reverse the negative trends and boost Russia's innovation performance. This paper studies the new policy approaches and suggests several others that might be considered useful at this stage of the country's development. This work contributes to the wider debate on the heterogeneity of national innovation systems and adaptation of the respective analytical approach to the study of technological development of the emerging economies. It also provides a detailed review of the literature and data sources on the Russian science and technology, and aims to start filling in the gap in this seriously understudied research area.     

环境政策、技术进步、市场结构对环境技术创新影响的实证研究

保持经济增长,减少能源消耗、缓解环境压力需要依靠科技创新。以中国大陆30个地区的大中型工业企业为例,通过建立面板模型,探讨了环境政策、技术进步,市场结构对环境技术创新的影响。结果表明,环境政策中,环境法制制度与环境影响评估制度对环境技术创新不存在显著影响,三同时制度存在正向影响,排污许可证制度、污染限期治理制度存在负向影响,且均存在累积效应。同时,人力资本存量对环境技术创新存在较之其他因素最大的正向影响,而研发投入却存在负向影响,说明劳动依然是我国大中型工业企业的主要贡献要素,发展模式仍属粗放型。此外,技术市场对环境技术创新存在正向影响及累积效应,说明对未来国内市场需求的预期会促进更多创新,而产品出口却不存在显著影响,说明出口贸易并未有效推动我国工业企业的环境创新。最后,结合对实证结果的分析与解释,给出了针对性的政策建议。     

CDM机制下森林碳汇潜力估算与市场开发政策创新

研究了中国的森林资源状况和碳储量的时空分布状况。分析了CDM机制下影响中国森林碳汇潜力的主要因素。基于森林碳汇潜力估算模型,以江苏龙潭林场为例进行了碳汇潜力计算。总结了中国森林碳汇市场开发中存在的问题,提出了CDM机制下中国森林碳汇市场的政策创新机制。     

Embeddedness, social epistemology and breakthrough innovation: The case of the development of statins

Radical, breakthrough innovations create not only great industrial possibilities, but also great social uncertainties. When a breakthrough medical technology is discovered, the question arises as to whether to accept the possible risks involved, or to defer implementing the innovation until more data is available, and, specifically, until others have taken up the innovation and demonstrated both its efficacy, its relative safety and market acceptance. Specifically, when a firm discovers a new candidate substance for a first in its class drug, how to evaluate the potential risks becomes a key predicament for management. This paper focuses on the role of a firm's social networks and national innovation system context in influencing the social epistemology around potential breakthrough innovations. Through an examination of the processes of drug development related to the same candidate substance in a Japanese firm and an American firm, we suggest that, in addition to organizational capabilities at the corporate level, social capital, specifically formed under a certain innovation system, plays a key role in leading to the successful introduction of breakthrough innovations.     

Science, technology and innovation for economic growth: Linking policy research and practice in ‘STIG Systems’

This paper reflects on the relevance of “systems-theoretic” approaches to the interdependent policy issues relating to the dynamics of science, technology and innovation and their relationship to economic growth. Considering the approach that characterizes much of the current economics literature's treatment of technology and growth policies, we pose the critical question: what kind of systems paradigm is likely to prove particularly fruitful in that particular problem-domain? Evolutionary, neo-Schumpeterian, and complex system dynamics approaches are conceptually attractive, and we examine their respective virtues and limitations. Both qualities are readily visible when one tries to connect systems-relevant research with practical policy-making in this field.     

The evolving relations between government agencies of innovation policymaking in emerging economies: A policy network approach and its application to the Chinese case

Literature on innovation policy reveals little of how relations between government agencies as policymakers evolve. Taking the policy network approach, this paper investigates three mechanisms underlining the evolution of inter-government agency relations in emerging economies – policy agenda, power concentration and heterogeneity dependence, and applies them to the analysis of the evolution of innovation policymaking in China. Operationally, the paper proposes a social network analysis (SNA)-based method to quantitatively study China’s innovation policy network, which consists of 463 innovation policy documents formulated by its central government ministries between 1980 and 2011. The findings show that the formal policy network for innovation has been not only sustained through the intervention of policy agendas but also self-organized because of policy network’s nature of power concentration and heterogeneity dependence. The presence of such mixed mechanisms in China’s innovation policy network’s evolution differs from the findings from industrialized countries where self-organization plays a central role. This work advances our theoretical understanding of the evolution of innovation policy network and has implications for innovation policymaking in emerging economies.     

Emergence and development of the National Innovation Systems concept

Adopting a science and technology studies (S&TS) perspective and organized around eight major themes, this paper analyzes the development of the National Innovation Systems (NIS) concept, examining how the formal body of codified NIS knowledge was produced, developed and spread, and how it is used. In order to trace its history, I interviewed major advocates of the NIS concept to understand how and why it has become so widespread in academic and policymaking circles. The eight themes serve as ‘missing pieces’ to explain the early history of the NIS concept.     

Advancing innovation in the public sector: Aligning innovation measurement with policy goals

There is sufficient evidence, drawn from surveys of innovation in the public sector and cognitive testing interviews with public sector managers, to develop a framework for measuring public sector innovation. Although many questions that are covered in the Oslo Manual guidelines for measuring innovation in the private sector can be applied with some modifications to the public sector, public sector innovation surveys need to meet policy needs that require collecting additional types of data. Policy to support public sector innovation requires data on how public sector organizations innovate and how a strategic management approach to innovation can influence the types of innovations that are developed. Both issues require innovations surveys to delve deeply into the innovation processes and strategies that are used by public sector managers. Implementation of the measurement framework proposed in this paper would open up opportunities for a new, policy-relevant research program on public sector innovation.