Bengt-Åke Lundvall

National systems of innovation - towards a theory of innovation and interactive learning

An emergency retraction means is provided for removing the extended manipulator arm of a nuclear reactor vessel inspection device from within a nozzle thereof or from a fully extended position should power for normal extension drive fail. A cable is looped about the interior of a carriage assembly which drivingly engages the remainder of the manipulator arm. The cable is fixedly clamped at one location within the carriage assembly and looped about a first idler pulley mounted in the manipulator arm and is guided therefrom by another idler to an accessible point where the end of the cable is formed into a ring. The ring is detachably secured thereat to the carriage assembly.

NATIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEMS - ANALYTICAL CONCEPT AND DEVELOPMENT TOOL

The term national system of innovation has been around for more than 20 years and today it has become widely spread among policy makers as well as among scholars all over the world. This paper takes stock and looks ahead from a somewhat personal point of view. It also gives some insight into how and why the concept came about. The paper argues that a key to progress is to get a better understanding of knowledge and learning as the basis for innovation and to understand how different modes of innovation complement each other and find support in the specific national context. A core of the innovation system is defined and it is illustrated that it is necessary both to understand micro‐behaviour in the core and understand “the wider setting” within which the core operates. Concepts used in organization theory referring to fit and misfit may be used to enrich the understanding of the performance of innovation systems. At the end of the paper I discuss some further developments needed to make the concept relevant and applicable to developing countries. Here special attention is given to institutions and capabilities supporting learning. I point to the need to give more emphasis to the distribution of power, to institution building and to the openness of innovation systems.

The knowledge-based economy: from the economics of knowledge to the learning economy

This chapter is about the production, diffusion and use of knowledge seen in an economic perspective. Fundamental distinctions between tacit and explicit knowledge and between knowhow, know-why, know-what and know-who are related to distinctions between public/private and local/global knowledge. It is argued that the idea of the economy as being knowledge based in its current stage is misleading and that it is more enlightening to assume that we have moved into a learning economy where interactive learning is a key to economic performance of firms, regions and nations. This is one reason why a narrow economics perspective is insufficient. The most serious weakness of standard economics is that it abstracts from the fact that agents are more or less competent and that learning processes enhancing competence are fundamental for the economic performance of organisations and regions. When it comes to understand industrial dynamics in the learning economy it is necessary to bring in other disciplines than economics in the analysis. JEL classification: L22, O31, O38

Why Study National Systems and National Styles of Innovation

Many consider that product specialization reflects variations in factor proportions rather than in the knowledge base, but to focus purely on resource allocations would result in stagnant economic development. Therefore a vibrant economy is one where innovation takes place. This shifts the focus of attention away from rational decision-making to learning and recognition that the future has an uncertain outcome. Learning involves four institutional components: the time horizon of the agents, the role of trust, the actual mix of rationality, and the way authority is expressed. Research shows a strong correlation between specialization in trade and specialization in the knowledge base. The National Systems of Innovation approach concludes that important parts of the knowledge base are tacit and emerge from routine basic learning-by-doing, using and -interacting rather than from science and technology search activities. A sociological system approach is functional and deterministic, whereas an innovation styl...

Knowledge management and innovation performance

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to show why the establishment of “learning organisations” must be a central element of knowledge management – especially in firms operating on markets where product innovation is an important parameter of competition. Design/methodology/approach - The argument straddles and combines insights related to management and organisation theory with an evolutionary economic analysis of the relationship between innovation, learning and knowledge. It is supported by an empirical analysis of survey data on Danish private sector firms. The survey was addressed to all firms in the private urban sector with 25 or more employees, supplemented with a stratified proportional sample of firms with 20-25 employees. Findings - The analysis shows that firms that introduce several organisational practices, assumed to characterise the learning organisation, are more innovative than the average firm. Research limitations/implications - The empirical findings are limited to the private sector and do not cover public sector organisations. Practical implications - The learning organisation characteristics have a positive impact on dynamic performance and there are obviously lessons to be learned from the successful firms operating in turbulent environments that introduce specific organisational characteristics such as job rotation, inter-divisional teams, delegation of responsibility and reducing the number of levels in the organisational hierarchy. Originality/value - The paper puts “knowledge management” into the wider concept of “learning economy” and shows how a key element of knowledge management is to enhance the learning capacity of the firm.

Innovation, Growth and Social Cohesion

Written by the scholar who, together with Chris Freeman, first introduced the concept of the innovation system, this book brings the literature an important step forward. Based upon extraordinarily rich empirical material, it shows how and why competence building and innovation are crucial for economic growth and competitiveness in the current era. It also provides a case study of a small, very successful European economy combining wealth creation with social cohesion.

Asia's innovation systems in transition

The success of Asian economies (first Japan, then Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and, more recently, China and India) has made it tempting to look for ‘an Asian model of development’. However, the strength of Asian development lies less in strategies that reproduce successful national systems of innovation and more in the capacity for institutional change to open up new development trajectories with greater emphasis on knowledge and learning. The select group of contributors demonstrate that although there are important differences among Asian countries in terms of institutional set-ups supporting innovation, government policies and industrial structures, they share common transitional processes to cope with the globalizing learning economy.

China's Innovation System and the Move towards Harmonious Growth and Endogenous Innovation

Observers around the world are impressed by the rapid growth of China’s economy. While outside observers tend to focus on the success story of unprecedented growth policy documents and recent domestic debates in China have pointed to the need for a shift in the growth trajectory with stronger emphasis on ‘endogenous innovation’ and ‘harmonious development’. This paper attempts to capture the current characteristics of China’s production and innovation system; how they were shaped by history and what major challenges they raise for the future. On the basis of the analysis the authors propose that it is possible to link together the two key concepts ‘endogenous innovation’ and ‘harmonious development’ by focusing innovation and development efforts in China on domestic needs, including social needs, rather than a one-sided focus on export-promotion and commodity production.

National Systems of Innovation: Public Policy in the Learning Society

Introduction Recently, several writers have argued that globalisation erodes national specificity and leads to long term convergence of structure, institutional set up, culture and, as a consequence, economic performance of countries. This does not correspond to observable facts nor has it been the message of this book. One of the most interesting developments of the 1980s is that despite globalisation, the distinctive features of national environments, have attracted much greater analytical attention than previously (Porter, 1990, Butry, 1991) and are seen by many authors as explaining differences among countries in competitiveness, growth and income. While the post war, ‘golden age’ growth period from the early 1950s to the early 1970s was characterised by convergence between the OECD countries (Gomulka, 1971, Cornwall, 1977, Maddison, 1982 and Abramovitz, 1989), as well as by a trend towards an increase in economic and social integration and reduction in inequalities inside nations (cf. the small but real closing of the gab between the Mezzogiornio and Northern Italy and a lowering of income distribution inequality in many OECD countries), the diverging features have been significantly more important in the two following decades. National specificity remains important and appears quite definitely to bear a relation to the capacity to produce, acquire, adopt and use technology. The erosion of the autonomy of national systems through globalisation is not synonymous with convergence and improved integration.

The learning economy: challenges to economic theory and policy

In the 1990s, institutional and evolutionary economics emerged as one of the most creative and successful approaches in the modern social sciences. This timely reader gathers together seminal contributions from leading international authors in the field of institutional and evolutionary economics including Eileen Appelbaum, Benjamin Coriat, Giovanni Dosi, Sheila C. Dow, Bengt-ake Lundvall, Uskali Maki, Bart Nooteboom and Marc R. Tool. The emphasis is on key concepts such as learning, trust, power, pricing and markets, with some essays devoted to methodology and others to the comparison of different forms of capitalism. An extensive introduction places the contributions in the context of the historical and theoretical background of