Reconceptualizing innovation policy. The case of France

Abstract

In March 2004, French researchers from the public research sector staged a protest movement unprecedented in its scope and length. The paper situates this conflict within the evolution of French innovation policies, notably with regard to the public research sector and its relationship to industry. Since the crisis of the 1970s it had become evident that French firms invested little in research and development when compared to their competitors. Since 1982, a succession of innovation policies were thus put in place to deal with this problem by enhancing the contribution of public sector research to the innovative performance of national industry. This paper analyzes these shifts in policy and the unexpected and often contradictory results that they have produced over time. These have included a rise in contract research but a decline in patenting activity by public sector research institutes, conflicts over the direct appropriation of benefits by research institutions and the holding of roles and functions concurrently across public and private sectors by researchers in these institutions and throughout, the continued under performance of French firms in R&D.