National Innovation Systems : It is

Abstract

The concept of an 'innovation system', defined globally or at the level of the nation, industrial sector, technology or region, is attracting much attention these days. It is hard to recall that as recently as a decade ago, the concept was a relatively novel one, and many people were sceptical about it. (Some still are.) To the best of my understanding, the concept of a national innovation system was proposed virtually simultaneously by Bengt-Ake Lundvall, Christopher Freeman and myself. This was certainly not a case of independent discovery. All three of us were part of a relatively closely connected group of scholars studying technical advance. Our first discussions of the concept were all published in Dosi et ai. (1988). We talked a lot to each other. The idea clearly was 'in the air'. And the name for that idea was the obvious one.