Conceptualising, modelling and evaluating systems of innovation

PRTLI_INNOVSYS

This is one of the five major Whitaker Institute projects financed under Cycle 3 of the PRTLI (Programme of Research in Third Level Institutions) managed by the Higher Education Authority under the Irish Government's National Development Plan.

Project Leader:

Participants:

Background

Whereas traditional economic analyses of technological change are predicated on the unproblematic transformation of well-defined inputs into marketable outputs, the innovation systems approach stresses the complexity of linkages between actors and institutions involved in science, technology and innovation (STI). This innovation systems approach directs our attention towards the importance of knowledge flows, including flows of knowledge embodied in human capital, which are understood to be crucial to the diffusion of product and process innovations (Dosi 1988, EU 1999, Freeman 1995, Lundvall 1992, Nelson 1993, OECD 1997, Patel and Pavitt 1994).
Understanding such linkages and flows is acutely relevant to an analysis of the emerging scientific, commercial and technological regime which is characterised by especial dependence on information and communications technologies -- the so-called 'knowledge-based economy' (OECD 1996).

While up to now, the presumption of innovation systems analysis has mainly been that such systems share the boundaries of nation states, a Regional Innovation Systems approach is now emerging (Cooke et. al. 1997 Padmore and Gibson 1998). Whether Ireland is best thought of as one Regional Innovation System within a supra-national context, or as comprising distinguishable sub-systems, is one basic -- and open -- research question.

Science, technology and innovation policy in Ireland is at a relatively early stage and is motivated by the desire to embed and sustain recent economic progress, recognising that technological change and consequent productivity increases are the key to long run increases in material living standards, and thus to generating the capacity to achieve wider socio-economic goals (STIAC 1995, Office of Science and Technology 1996). The success of this policy effort will in part depend on the quality of our understanding of innovation processes (Kane 1999, Leavy and Jacobson 1998/99)

Project Description

Task 1

Survey of existing STI and Innovation Systems approaches

This Task is to deliver a structured account of the conceptual territory which informs the innovation systems approach in analysing STI activities, moving beyond a critique of neo-classical models towards concepts which can be made operational in applied work in an efficient way. A particular concern here is to identify the distinctive role which public policy actors can or might play within such systems, particularly at sub-national levels e.g. in addressing 'systemic failures', beyond the neo-classical 'market-failures' approach.

Task 2

Metrics and indicators for Innovation Systems in Ireland

We provide from existing data sources preliminary descriptions of innovation systems in Ireland. Initial approaches will embrace measures such as R&D expenditures, numbers of researchers, conventional productivity/growth accounting exercises, a preliminary mapping of knowledge flows and identification of actors in public sector research systems. These exercises will inform an initial view of the salience of the regional innovation systems approach to Ireland, although the key outcome will be the identification of specific empirical gaps which this project will address.

Task 3

Elaboration of theory/collection of new data on Innovation Systems in Ireland

From the earlier considerations of conceptual frameworks and empirical counterparts, the project will identify particular aspects of innovation systems which will be further explored at both theoretical and applied levels. This task is, from this distance, open-ended: the outcomes of the previous Tasks will determine the precise agenda. One working possibility is to measure and model inter- and intra- regional knowledge flows in Ireland, as embodied in human capital, for particular sectors. A second focus here might be to examine the role of information and communications technologies infrastructure in regional innovation systems. Methodologies employed would included survey and interview work to feed into growth/productivity accounting, econometric and/or simulation exercises.

Task 4

Evaluation of the implications for STI policy of the Innovation System approach

Whereas neo-classical analyses of economic structures have their counterpart theories of public policy in welfare economics and public choice theory; the distinctive implications of innovation systems for policy analysis, particularly at regional levels, require consideration and articulation. This implies a matching of general theoretical and empirical insights from the previous Tasks with the institutional complexities specific to particular innovation systems. Thus, some further theoretical elaboration, in additional to field work/data collection, would inform this attempt to move towards policy consequences from the underlying positive descriptions/models of the innovation system.

Publications, presentations etc, for this project:

Please visit the Project Participants' webpage for details of publications associated with this research.

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