National systems of production, innovation and competence building

doi:10.1016/S0048-7333(01)00137-8

Research Policy

Volume 31, Issue 2, February 2002, Pages 213-231

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0048-7333(01)00137-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

The authors have worked on innovation systems for more than a decade. This paper is an attempt to take stock. In Section 2, we reflect upon the emergence and fairly rapid diffusion of the concept ‘national system of innovation’ as well as related concepts. In Section 3, we describe how the Aalborg-version of the concept evolved by a combination of ideas that moved from production structure towards including all elements and relationships contributing to innovation and competence building. In Section 4, we discuss the challenges involved both in a theoretical deepening of a fairly narrow version of the concept and in the movement toward the broader approach and in adapting the concept for the analysis of poor countries.

Introduction

The four authors have worked individually and collectively on different aspects of innovation system studies for more than a decade. Actually, the common research program leading up to this concept was established more than 20 years ago (Andersen et al., 1978, Andersen et al., 1979). This paper is an attempt to sum up this work and indicate in what direction we believe future work on innovation systems should go. In the first part, we give some background on how the concept ‘national system of innovation’ has developed and spread. In the second part, we tell the story about how the Aalborg-version of the concept developed from being rooted primarily in production structure towards including all elements of the system contributing to competence building. In the third part, we discuss the challenges involved both in a theoretical deepening of a fairly narrow version of the concept and in the movement toward the broader approach and how the concept could be adapted in order to be useful for the analysis of countries in the South.

Section snippets

The emergence and spread of the concept of national systems of innovation

When using an artefact like a computer it is not necessary to know how and by whom it was invented, developed and introduced in the market. Neither is it always necessary in socio-economic research to know how specific analytical tools were shaped. But from time to time it may be useful to reflect on how a concept such as ‘national innovation systems’ came about and to see in what direction it tends to be developed. This is especially the case when the concept cannot be applied smoothly and

The evolution of the Aalborg-version of the national innovation system concept

One of Schumpeter’s major contributions to the understanding of innovation processes is the interpretation of innovation as a new combination. This concept is important because it brings together two contradictory but important aspects of innovation: its continuity (existing elements) and radical change (the new combination). The Aalborg-version of the national system of innovation concept may be seen as a combination of four elements: the neo-Schumpeterian reinterpretation of national

Challenges for the concept of national systems of innovation

Our on-going research can to some extent be seen as a response to challenges to the concept of national systems of innovation. For brevity we shall only consider four major challenges. The first concerns the need for a clarification and deepening of the concept of national innovation systems. The second is to base the concept much more strongly on the process of learning and competence building. The third has to do with the need to broaden the analysis of economic development and to study how

Concluding remarks

The concept of national systems of innovation has evolved and diffused quickly during the last few years. This development has emphasised the need of sharpening the concept and the related policies, and we are confident that much progress will be seen in this vein. There is, however, a tendency to concentrate the efforts in the rich North. Therefore, we shall use our concluding remarks on the possibilities of widening the concept and its applications.

We believe that the broad concept of

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