Innovation and innovation policy in forestry: Linking innovation process with systems models

Abstract

Economic research has identified innovation as a key engine for economic growth, competitiveness and employment. This is not only relevant for high-tech industries but to all sectors and economies, including forestry and rural areas. There are different approaches to study innovation. One is to study innovation as a linear process. Another is to study innovation as a complex phenomenon from a systems perspective. The latter has been widely applied in innovation research over the last decade. The systems view has been very fruitful in describing the empirical realities in the emergence of innovations, including the role of a multitude of actors and interactions. In order to be able to provide policy relevant advise for innovation policy on the basis of a sound theoretical foundation that builds on empirical realities, however, the conceptual frameworks need further development and refinement. The objective of this paper is to link a linear innovation process concept on firm level with an innovation system model and to apply it to forestry. The empirical data was collected through nation-wide surveys amongst forest holdings, from institutional level actors and from case studies in seven Central European countries, undertaken in the context of the EFI Regional Project Centre Innoforce. Based on the two conceptual frameworks and the empirical findings from the innovation surveys and case studies, the paper identifies a range of weaknesses in the current set-up of innovation systems. Subsequently, it develops a set of innovation policy recommendations that are considerably different from current forest policy designs. The paper comes to the conclusion that the innovation systems model, despite the need for further development, is a promising approach for scientists to analyse innovation as a complex phenomenon and provides forest policy makers with a new perspective on how to promote innovation in forestry.