Concept Of Innovation System Research Articles

Towards system oriented innovation policy evaluation? Evidence from EU28 member states

Many years after the introduction of the innovation system concept in innovation policy design, it is still not clear whether innovation policy evaluation practices follow a system approach. Building on evaluation and innovation studies, this article develops the concept ‘system oriented innovation policy evaluation’ based on four attributes (coverage, perspective, temporality and expertise). The attributes are used as analytical devices for gathering extensive empirical evidence on the actual practices of EU28 member states. The findings show that few countries have developed a type of innovation policy evaluation that is system oriented. The advent of a system approach to innovation policy evaluation offers the opportunity of comprehensive, contextualized and evidence-based innovation policy-making. However, there are still serious obstacles as such an approach requires important knowledge and organisational capacities. Overcoming these obstacles would need more decided evaluation capacity-building at the national level.

Low‐tech industry, regional innovation system and inter‐actor collaboration in Indonesia: The case of the Pekalongan batik industry

A focus on high‐tech industries has neglected the potential of low‐tech industries in regional economic policy. This paper critically assesses the application of the concept of the regional innovation system (RIS) by exploring the processes through which government policy and inter‐actor collaboration facilitate low‐tech industrial growth and development. In doing so, we conduct a qualitative case study on the batik industry in Pekalongan, the largest batik‐producing city in Indonesia. The results show that national and local government policy frameworks have played a major role in facilitating formal and informal collaboration between research and education institutions and the batik industry in Pekalongan. These collaborations contribute to creating research and learning environments that are important conditions for local innovation and development.

Circular Economy in the Triple Helix of Innovation Systems

The Triple Helix concept of innovation systems holds that consensus space among industry, government and university is required to bring together their competences to achieve enhanced economic and social development on a systemic scale. In line with this argument, this article analyses empirically how the concept of circular economy is conceived in the institutional spheres of “industry”, “government” and “university”. Innovation systems are constantly being reconstructed through knowledge production and communication, which is reflected in how concepts develop in the different spheres. By applying natural language processing tools to key contributions from each of the three spheres (the “Triple Helix”), it is shown that, although institutional backgrounds do contribute to differing conceptualizations of circular economy, there is a substantial but limited conceptual consensus space, which, according to the Triple Helix, should open new opportunities for innovations. The consensus space shared across the three spheres focuses on materials and products and sees circular economy as a way to create new resources, businesses and products from waste. The industry sphere highlights business opportunities on global scale, which are also evident in the government sphere. The government sphere connects circular economy to waste-related innovation policies targeted at industrial renewal, economic growth, investments and jobs. The university sphere, in turn, focuses on production and environmental issues, waste and knowledge, and is rather distinct from the two other spheres. The importance of the differing conceptions of circular economy is based on the logic of Triple Helix systems. Accordingly, sufficient consensus between the Triple Helix spheres can advance the application of the concept of circular economy beyond the individual spheres to achieve systemic changes.

Science and technology cooperation in cross-border regions: a proximity approach with evidence for Northern Europe

ABSTRACTGiven the sheer number of cross-border regions (CBRs) within the EU, their socio-economic importance has been recognized both by policy-makers and academics. Recently, the novel concept of cross-border regional innovation system has been introduced to guide the assessment of integration processes in CBRs. A central focus of this concept is set on analyzing the impact of varying types of proximity (cognitive, technological, etc.) on cross-border cooperation. Previous empirical applications of the concept have, however, relied on individual case studies and varying methodologies, thus complicating and constraining comparisons between different CBRs. Here a broader view is provided by comparing 28 Northern European CBRs. The empirical analysis utilizes economic, science and technology (S&T) statistics to construct proximity indicators and measures S&T integration in the context of cross-border cooperation. The findings from descriptive statistics and exploratory count data regressions show that technological and cognitive proximity measures are significantly related to S&T cooperation activities (cross-border co-publications and co-patents). Taken together, our empirical approach underlines the feasibility of utilizing the proximity approach for comparative analyses in CBR settings.

Innovation platform approach and food legumes value-chain improvement in Abda and Ahmar regions, Morocco

Morocco has been experiencing during the last decade innovating approaches to improve its agricultural productivity while adopting an ascending territorial and value-chain development approaches. Among the multi-actors approaches, that are undergoing the adoption process to reach this purpose in a limited scale, is the Innovation Platform (IP) approach which is being tested on the value-chain of “Food Legumes” that are undergoing a rehabilitation initiative at the national level in the main production areas. The objectives of this work are: to present briefly this experience and to examine its possible impact on governance and sustainable use of different resources. This IP is a coalition of stakeholders who meet to share their experiences, knowledge, skills, resources and ideas for the purpose of solving problems and seize opportunities of common interest. It includes collaborators from various social and economic actors and institutions that govern their behavior, all working toward a common goal. They serve as a mechanism to improve communication, coordination and the sharing of knowledge between the key players on the India-Morocco Food Legume Initiative (IMFLI) project sites. This IP is serving also as a tool for dialog between the different actors of the value-chain to identify collectively the challenges and find opportunities to improve the food legumes production and marketing by the adoption of better technologies and innovations. The platform has adopted innovation as a systemic and dynamic process of institutional learning and recognizes that innovation can emerge from several sources, of complex interactions and knowledge flows. In our IP case the innovation consists of 3 main traits: the technology could be a commodity, a crop type, a variety, a race or integrated management of crops, water or soil packages; organizational in terms to organize and disseminate the knowledge of new ways; and institutional in terms of rules, cultures, values, norms, behavior, policy and laws. This concept of innovation systems embraces not only the providers of science but the totality and the interactions of the actors involved in innovation to achieve a common goal.

«TRIPLE HELIX» AS THE BASIS OF THE CREATION OF INNOVATIVE SYSTEMS

The article describes theoretical principles and preconditions of developing advanced innovation systems and presents different theories and authors’ approaches, which could provide growth of research in this field. The authors analyze integral parts of the national innovation system and forms of knowledge circulation within it. They underline the important role of developing processes of three leading institutional sectors of economy collaboration, i.e. state, business and science, which are known in literature as the ‘triple spiral’ model, depict its practical advantages and identify barriers on the way of creating the efficient innovation system through this model. The article puts forward a concept of the regional innovation system, which is close to the national one by certain characteristics and shows its key components aimed at raising national competitiveness, including by way of the cluster approach. Special attention is paid to innovation clusters as an effective form of attaining a high level of competitiveness through informal integration of institutional structures. Cluster policy is presented as a complex of steps which can raise efficiency of the Russian innovation system through development of competitive markets, increasing innovation character of different industries of economy, motivating initiatives in regions and stimulating closer interaction between state, business and science being the key components of innovation system of any country.

On the feasibility of on-farm biogas-to-electricity conversion: To what extent is solid oxide fuel cells durability a threat to break even the initial investment?

Despite their promising features, adverse economic feasibility still hamper SOFCs wide implementation and this effect is emphasized as long as the system size is reduced. According to previous investigations, the biogas pre-treatment section represents a burden for the economic viability. Aiming at reducing the extent of installation costs in SOFC-based configurations, biogas partial upgrading through CO2 gas-separation membranes is put forth as innovative solution against reforming. This innovative system concept is expected to make SOFCs more cost-effective, yet resulting feeding gas might cause a quicker SOFC performance decay. Besides solving this trade-off, the economic viability results strongly sensitive to subsidiary electricity prices in force according to the regulatory framework.This paper presents a comparative economic assessment regarding biogas-to-electricity conversion via Solid Oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and mature technologies as internal combustion engines (ICEs). Results highlighted that, the innovative SOFC system is far more viable than reforming-based one, exhibiting a reasonable payback time, with an adequate subsidized electricity sale price (4 and 5 years for small/medium and large-size plants respectively when subsidy is 0.28 €/kWh), up to 1%1000h degradation rate. On the other hand, whilst considering a SOFC degradation rate of 0.03%1000h, the reforming-based system appears feasible only on large-size plants, yet recovering the initial capital expenditure in 9 years. Moreover, once the break-even point is reached, the gain in the net revenue produced by the innovative system is amplified in the event of small-size installation. This allows the possibility to undertake the risk of higher degradation rates (up to 2%1000h) without jeopardizing the economic profitability. Therefore, in the present regulatory framework and under current capital costs projections, the innovative SOFC system appears as much profitable as ICE mature technology. Such effort in the design of the fuel pre-treatment unit can lever SOFC broad spreading into the market of small biogas producers.

Thrust and torque vector characteristics of axially-symmetric E-sail

The Electric Solar Wind Sail is an innovative propulsion system concept that gains propulsive acceleration from the interaction with charged particles released by the Sun. The aim of this paper is to obtain analytical expressions for the thrust and torque vectors of a spinning sail of given shape. Under the only assumption that each tether belongs to a plane containing the spacecraft spin axis, a general analytical relation is found for the thrust and torque vectors as a function of the spacecraft attitude relative to an orbital reference frame. The results are then applied to the noteworthy situation of a Sun-facing sail, that is, when the spacecraft spin axis is aligned with the Sun-spacecraft line, which approximatively coincides with the solar wind direction. In that case, the paper discusses the equilibrium shape of the generic conducting tether as a function of the sail geometry and the spin rate, using both a numerical and an analytical (approximate) approach. As a result, the structural characteristics of the conducting tether are related to the spacecraft geometric parameters.

Building an innovation system and indigenous knowledge in Namibia

Namibia, like many southern African countries, aims to become a knowledge-based society with a well-established innovation system (IS). Development based on knowledge and innovation reduces poverty and inequality, even if this causality is also contested. In this study, we analyzed the development of an IS in Namibia with a particular focus on indigenous knowledge (IK). Embedding IK in innovation policies is often seen as an opportunity to adjust the general concept of ISs to local contexts and practices and include bottom-up approaches in policies. In Namibia, the establishment of key institutions and strategies for an IS is supported by international development aid. In operational IS practices, the focus is on a science-technology-innovation mode of learning that requires high analytical knowledge and a well-functioning IS – which are rare in Namibia. The results of our study reveal that the doing-using-interacting mode of learning and IK create comparative advantages and provide ability for positive societal change in the local communities. However, despite high expectations, the practical outcomes of innovations based on IK are limited. Nevertheless, beyond its economic value, IK is important for developing countries’ innovation policy development, as it can facilitate the participatory processes of local communities in the establishment of ISs.

Nurturing agroforestry systems in Flanders: Analysis from an agricultural innovation systems perspective

The shift to industrial agriculture in Europe brought along a range of environmental and social externalities. This led policy makers, researchers and civil servants to consider and explore the potential of diversified farming systems (DFS) to address current problems in agriculture. However, because of multiple obstacles adoption of these DFS by farmers is not obvious. In this study we investigate the case of agroforestry (AF) systems in Flanders, where a government incentive scheme initiated in 2011, did not lead to the expected uptake of AF systems by farmers. To understand this implementation gap and the role of the different relevant actors herein, we used the Agricultural Innovation System concept ensuring an integrative and holistic analysis. Through 25 interviews, 2 focus groups and document analysis, a set of qualitative data was gathered and analyzed. This revealed five sets of challenges, which are of a technical, financial, legal, organizational and social nature. For each of these challenges development pathways were formulated to further upscale AF adoption. Although they should be substantiated and fine-tuned through further research, they put forward the importance of (1) investing in research to improve the compatibility and labor productivity of AF systems, (2) engaging private and societal actors in niche markets for agroecological products, (3) developing a full-fledged legal landscape and an effective incentive program, (4) using different communication and education channels to familiarize actors with agroecological practices, and (5) strengthening the dialogue between influential groups.

Plasma brake model for preliminary mission analysis

Plasma brake is an innovative propellantless propulsion system concept that exploits the Coulomb collisions between a charged tether and the ions in the surrounding environment (typically, the ionosphere) to generate an electrostatic force orthogonal to the tether direction. Previous studies on the plasma brake effect have emphasized the existence of a number of different parameters necessary to obtain an accurate description of the propulsive acceleration from a physical viewpoint. The aim of this work is to discuss an analytical model capable of estimating, with the accuracy required by a preliminary mission analysis, the performance of a spacecraft equipped with a plasma brake in a (near-circular) low Earth orbit. The simplified mathematical model is first validated through numerical simulations, and is then used to evaluate the plasma brake performance in some typical mission scenarios, in order to quantify the influence of the system parameters on the mission performance index.

МЕГАТРЕНДИ РОЗВИТКУ ГЛОБАЛЬНИХ ІННОВАЦІЙНИХ МЕРЕЖ

Under the megatrend, we mean large-scale technological, economic, social, political changes that occur slowly, but in the long run, when they are rooted, they substantially and permanently affect most of the processes in society. Such relative stability in the trajectory of the main forces of change can predict some elements of medium and long-term future changes. The article investigates such megatrends of the development of global innovation networks as the structural nature of the global innovation system, the development of systemic interconnections in the field of innovation, the interaction of national innovation systems and global, the internationalization of innovation activity, and the paradigm of "open innovation". The methodological principles and structural elements of the concept of the national innovation system are determined in the paper, the connection of national innovation systems with the phenomenon of internationalization of the innovation sphere is explored. The theoretical principles of the phenomenon of internationalization of innovation activity are investigated, as well as the preconditions for the emergence of the concept of "open innovation" and its current trends have been established. The concept of open innovation is an important precondition for the emergence and functioning of global innovation networks. The paper analyzes the genesis and specificity of the phenomenon of global innovation networks, outlines their structure and dynamics. It has been determined that global innovation networks play an important role in the development of the modern world economy, as they stimulate international cooperation in the innovation sphere, transfer of knowledge to the world economy and general scientific and technological development and growth of world production.

Поняття національної системи інновацій. Роль уряду в інноваційній політиці: практика Азербайджану

Поняття національної системи інновацій. Роль уряду в інноваційній політиці: практика Азербайджану

RESEARCH FRAMEWORK FOR SYSTEM SECURITY OF TECHNOLOGICAL & INNOVATION SYSTEMS

The purpose of this study is to consider the main aspects of system security theoretical concept and practical aspect within the technological & innovation systems research methodology development according to their considering as structurally complicated systems. Methodology. In this study, we propose to use the concept of technological & innovation systems, in which it is analysed the development of the technological field in terms of structures and processes that support or impede its development. So this approach can be considered as an expanding to techno-socio-economic analysis, considered for the innovation system in our previous studies. Results. The problem of study comes from the national security and defence objectives, which can be achieved within the national innovation systems, considering new meaning and problems in the age of globalization and high technologies development. We can underline that the important factor of technological & innovation systems system security consists in system identification within the management theory as the determination of the structure of the system and its parameters by analysing input data and system outputs. At the same time, we can note the system specifics, e.g. the identification of industrial systems security deals with the establishment of the identity of production facilities an ecological security etc. The most important relationships of innovation & technological systems designing that allow establishing appropriate adaptive management decisions were proposed. For the development of combined models of innovation & technological systems security, the main aspects of this type of systems were considered. Practical implications. Based on this, the author proposed to use system indicators for security providing process. Using these indicators, we can identify system synchronous development speed and autonomous of speeds of security providing process. The technological & innovation systems security management is proposed to be analysed in two interrelated subsystems: self-organizing subsystems and technological subsystem. The main activities for the system security of highly complicated system providing were proposed. Value/originality. Based on the foregoing, the authors proposed to use security relationships adaptive management as a set of methods that can generate management systems, able to change the security-related parameters of regulator or controller structure according to the change of control object parameters or external disturbances acting on the control object.

REGIONAL COMPETITIVENESS IN THE CONTEXT OF “NEW INDUSTRIAL POLICY” – THE CASE OF CROATIA

The purpose of this paper is to do research on regional conditions that are most conducive to maximising the positive effects of the implementation of “New industrial policy” (policy based on Smart specialisation strategy) to regional competitiveness in Croatia. Rather than using the standard but fragmented system of counties, this small post-transition economy is first mapped into five regions following the concept of regional innovation systems (RISs). Essentially, RIS concept rests on an idea that interactions among regional agents lead to the creation of optimal innovation output, while policy based on Smart specialisation strategy in Croatia is a national policy that promotes creation of innovative products and services in five promising domains and 13 sub- thematic areas. Analysis is carried out in two steps, firstly using a data-driven approach employed in a multidimensional framework for assessing regional accessibility, absorptive capacity and diffusion of knowledge in the context of Smart specialisation strategy (S3) implementation. In the second step, the assumption of post-transition reliance on the external knowledge and technology in producing innovation output is examined via regional presence of high-technology firms, GDP per capita and international trade and investment variables and patents per 100.000 inhabitants using cluster analysis (Ward method). The results show that highly internationalised regions with higher density of hightechnology firms already produce relatively more innovation output per capita. With already favourable conditions in place, these progressive regions are most likely to reinforce their competitive advantages through the transformation of their economic structures enabled by implementation of S3.

The Institutional Factors of Strategic Development and the Tactical Regulation of Nanotechology

The analysis of influence of institutional factors on development of technologies is carried out. The generating role of institutions in technological progress is proved. The general logic of an institutionalization of new technological way is presented on an example of nanotechnologies.Institutes are the "weak link" of the concepts and theories of the evolution of technology and technological structures. Most modern theorists of evolutionary economics are focused mainly on the study of the dynamics and forms of scientific and technological progress, especially the mechanisms of nucleation and diffusion of large "clusters" of innovation.In their turn, the institutional economists have concentrated on the analysis of factors and ways to minimize the transaction costs sustained interaction of agents and their organizations "in the high-tech world with a huge degree of specialization and division of labor other than impersonal exchange" (North 1997).In their works only relate to the institutional structure and infrastructure of innovative development, although, as noted by Nelson (2002), the concept of national and regional innovation systems is institutional in nature just on this fact is rarely emphasizes the attention of scientists. As a result, institutional forms and mechanisms of technological evolution is very poorly understood, and their analysis is based on very general ideas about the institutes and institutions.

State and Prospects of Development of Kazakhstan Innovative Infrastructure

1. Introduction Knowledge, creativity and innovation take on great importance in the current context and become the core of the innovation-driven economy. Creation of national innovation systems (NIS) and development of innovative strategies and programs are considered as key priorities for many countries today, being one of the main areas of their economic growth. Shaping an efficient and fully functioning innovation system is of paramount importance in the context of establishment of a knowledge-based economy. Measures aimed at shaping and development of the national innovation system has been taken in Kazakhstan since the early 2000s. At the moment, the republic has an active policy of development and promotion of innovation, and the individual elements of the national innovation system are being created. However, the creation of infrastructure links of the Kazakhstan innovation system has not led to a significant growth in innovative activity. The Kazakhstan innovation system remains fragmented. It is described by poor development of individual divisions, a small number of created infrastructure facilities and a concentration of their larger part in Astana and Almaty. The existing Kazakhstan innovative infrastructure is not efficient as a system: its elements are isolated from each other and lack a required level of cooperation between each other--in particular, they lack synergy between science and industry. To date, the Kazakhstan innovative infrastructure is not a system of complex organizations that provide the entire range of services required during the operation and interaction between the members of the national innovation system (Al-Hakim & Chen, 2014). Inefficient functioning of innovative infrastructure does not allow Kazakhstan to move towards the creation of the innovation-driven economy. According to the Global Competitiveness Index for 2016-2017, Kazakhstan ranks 53rd out of 138 countries and is in the process of transition from the factor-driven economy to the efficiency-driven economy (WEF, 2016; UN, 2012). According to the Global Innovation Index, Kazakhstan was ranked 75th out of 128 countries in 2016 and 82nd out of 141 countries in 2015. As we can see, the Kazakhstan rank has grown, but the innovation efficiency ratio is very low in the country--it ranked 108th in 2016 and 124th in 2015 (WIPO, 2016). In the context of establishment of the knowledge-based economy in Kazakhstan and in the light of implementation of the Concept of Innovation Development of Kazakhstan till 2020 and the State Program of Industrial and Innovation Development of Kazakhstan for 2015-2019, the development of the existing innovative infrastructure becomes very important. The situational SWOT analysis is planned in order to determine the state of the priority areas of development of innovative infrastructure. 2. Literature Review 2.1. Theoretical aspects of the study of innovative infrastructure The concept of a national innovation system emerged in the second half of the 1980s (Lundvall, 2005). It is aimed at studying the relationship between technological development and institutional involvement of innovative companies (Kaiser and Prange, 2004). The essence of this concept lies in the fact that the technological differences coming from differences in national innovation systems can act as a model of technological specialization that expresses the country's competitiveness. As long as the NIS strengthening is equivalent to improvement in the innovation climate, the increase in the possibility of the emergence of innovation is the main source of economic growth (Arocena and Sutz, 2000). The central assumption of the concept is that the rate of technological change in any country and the performance of its firms in competitiveness with foreign countries in trade in goods and services do not only depend on the scale of R&D and other technical measures, but also on the way the available resources are managed and arranged at the enterprise and national level. …

Company innovation system: an exploration based on examples from Arcelik and Vestel

We conceptualize the company as an innovation system. The systems approach to innovation has received limited attention at the company level. While it is widely accepted for nations, sectors, regions and technologies, and while some company-level building blocks have been proposed, the dominant approach at company level is to regard innovation as a process. A company innovation system consists of interacting components with the purpose to produce innovation. Those components can be actors, resources or institutional characteristics. The components can be configured and reconfigured for different purposes. An innovation process is therefore one of the many possible configurations within a system. A systems approach emphasizes part-whole interactions and evolutionary dynamics. We explore the concept of company innovation system using case examples of two Turkish electronics manufacturers: Arcelik, with its Telve Turkish coffee machine, and Vestel with its 3D Smart TV. We find that using the company innovation system approach, we can map innovation systems at the company level, we can indicate the relationships between the components of the system and we can identify system characteristics such as open versus closed, archetypical configurations, where new combinations come from, coordination mechanisms and exploration versus exploitation. As such, we can address questions about the company’s innovation management that are difficult to address by using a process approach. We conclude that the company innovation system approach provides additional and complementary insights to the existing company-level innovation approaches.

Global Innovation Systems—A conceptual framework for innovation dynamics in transnational contexts

This paper proposes a framework for the analysis of technological innovation processes in transnational contexts. By drawing on existing innovation system concepts and recent elaborations on the globalization of innovation, we develop a multi-scalar conceptualization of innovation systems. Two key mechanisms are introduced and elaborated: the generation of resources in multi-locational subsystems and the establishment of structural couplings among them in a global innovation system (GIS). Based on this conceptualization, we introduce a typology of four generic GIS configurations, building on the innovation mode and valuation system in different industry types. The analytical framework is illustrated with insights from four emerging clean-tech industries. We state that a comprehensive GIS perspective is instrumental for developing a more explanatory stance in the innovation system literature and developing policy interventions that reflect the increasing spatial complexity in the innovation process.

Introduction: Challenges to Africa's Agricultural Transformation

Introduction: Challenges to Africa's Agricultural Transformation