Innovation policies in Thailand: towards a system of innovation approach?

Abstract

The issue of the rationale for public intervention under the system of innovation (SI) perspective has recently received increasing attention from scholars and practitioners. However, with few exceptions, this literature has been based on the analysis of innovation policies and innovation systems in industrialized countries neglecting almost completely the specific policy dilemmas that arise from the weak and fragmented innovation systems that characterize developing countries. In the last few years, a growing number of developing countries have adopted the SI approach officially in their innovation policy. Yet, there has not been an adequate attempt to systematically analyze how (and if) this has been done in practice. This study attempts to shed some light on this issue by analyzing the innovation policy of Thailand. It suggests that while the innovation system approach might be officially adopted by a government, the practice follows old innovation paradigms and hardly addresses systemic problems.