Concept Of Innovation System Research Articles

Scaling Up Agricultural Innovation for Inclusive Livelihood and Productivity Outcomes in Sub‐Saharan Africa: The Case of Nigeria

AbstractAgricultural research programmes driven by agricultural innovation system concepts usually aim to change the way in which low income rural agrarian households in a nation like Nigeria communicate with the market and the decision‐making strategies pertaining to development of their agri‐business and the scarce resources which are at their disposal. We assess the extent to which the use of these innovative agricultural research interventions impact upon the livelihood and productivity outcomes of rural smallholder farmers in sub‐Saharan African using a case study of Nigeria. Using propensity score matching as a means of establishing a valid counterfactual and single differencing to measure impact, the study establishes that rural incomes and output are significantly impacted by agricultural research interventions that are driven by agricultural innovation systems concepts. The study finds that participating households had better livelihood, productivity and more diversified income portfolios during the implementation of innovative research intervention as a result of greater linkages to markets and capacity building opportunities; phasing out of the research programme reduced the diversity of income portfolios and led to the erosion of livelihoods. Therefore, agricultural innovation system concepts should be mainstreamed in all public agricultural extension and research programmes.

Achieving best-fit configurations through advisory subsystems in AKIS: case studies of advisory service provisioning for diverse types of farmers in Norway

ABSTRACTPurpose: In light of the discussion on ‘best-fit’ in pluralistic advisory systems, this article aims to present and discuss challenges for advisory services in serving various types of farmers when they seek and acquire farm business advice.Design/methodology/approach: The empirical basis is data derived from four workshops, five interviews with staff from advisory organizations, and interviews with 11 farmers.Findings: Emerging configurations serve different types of farmers, that is, private advisors serve different clients in different ways; these could be considered subsystems within the overall advisory system.Practical implications: Best-fit configurations of advisory services exist within a country setting in response to farmers’ information demands and how they seek information, as well as public goals of the advisory system, and lead to advisory subsystems. Policy-makers should monitor the emergence of these subsystems and become active participants in some of them, in line with the concept of the public sector as regulator of private and commercial advisory systems.Theoretical implications: Best-fit has been mainly explored at country level, but this study shows that, within countries, different advisory service configurations are formed. So, best-fit should not be considered at national level only, in view of subsystems which can have wider or narrower boundaries. More broadly, the concept of Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) should not be confined to the national level, for example, in view of farmer specializations within countries and the international dimensions of advisory systems.Originality/value: The originality lies in the further unraveling of heterogeneity within AKIS and what this implies for advisory service delivery configurations.

Understanding innovation platform effectiveness through experiences from west and central Africa

Innovation platforms (IPs) are a way of organizing multistakeholder interactions, marshalling ideas, people and resources to address challenges and opportunities embedded in complex settings. The approach has its roots in theories of complexity, the concept of innovation systems and practices of participatory action research. IPs have been widely adopted across Africa and beyond in recent years as a “must have” tool in a range of “for development” modes of agricultural research. Our experiences with establishing and facilitating nine IPs in local settings in west and central Africa contribute to understanding factors that impact on their effectiveness.The nine IPs were variously focused on developing dairy, crop and/or meat value chains by strengthening mixed crop-livestock production systems or seed systems. Using case study methods, we identified variables that contribute to explaining the performance of these IPs in relation to six domains of change in the agricultural system and the sustainability of changes. Thematic analysis was guided by a conceptual framework which grouped variables into four categories (context, structure, conduct, and process) that interact to influence IP performance.Stronger market connections and value chains were generated through some of these IPs but the most prevalent changes overall were in farm productivity and technical knowledge of producers. The structures evolved in some IPs, akin to those of producer collectives, suggested they were filling an institutional gap locally. The effect of the IPs on deeper level institutions that influence agricultural systems and food security was modest, constraining prospects for the IPs to generate impact at scale. Impacts from the IPs on research and development organisations were uncommon but had transformative significance.Our conceptual framework did not offer optimal guidance to understanding how the many variables that contributed to performance of these IPs combined and sequenced, but the pattern of interactions was consistent with increased social capital being the prime mediator for change. Achieving greater prospects for transformational change and impact at scale warrants at least equal attention to three other interconnected change pathways: through markets, institutions and innovation capacity. Important factors for increased impact are individuals and organisations with capacity to purposefully build and manage inter-organisational and cross-scale networks, early diagnostic studies of the institutional landscape, and adaptive processes of critical reflection and learning that continue beyond the short term.

From the History of Forming and Developing the Concept of the National Innovative System

The field of my scientific studies during last period have included extremely active field – innovations and the problems related with them. The Article touches upon historic issues of formation of the effective national innovation system. Particularly, the factors determining the concept of national innovation system are represented, together with the main stages of its evolution. We tried to represent the image of scientific study of origination, formation and development of the concept in logical order; the role of the researchers, who are famous worldwide and scientific merit in the establishment of the theory of the concept of national innovation system.

Moving innovation systems research to the next level: towards an integrative agenda

The concept of innovation systems has been a guiding paradigm of innovation research and strongly influenced research and innovation policy since the early 1990s. In spite of this success, criticisms have been raised in recent years about whether it is still a suitable framework for addressing the innovation-related challenges of the future. In the present paper we claim that systemic explanations of innovation success have still a very important role to play. In order to address the rising criticism, however, we have to reconsider the conceptual core of the family of innovation systems (IS) approaches and sketch out a path for renewal. The paper retraces the conceptual roots of IS approaches, assesses their uptake in different policy circles around the world, discusses the conceptual core and explanatory ambition, and finally formulates a future-oriented research agenda for a more integrative innovation systems framework.

National Innovation Systems of the South, Innovation and Economic Development Policies: A Multidimensional Approach

The National Innovation System (NIS) concept is constantly evolving and this evolution merits particular attention today. Indeed, the extensive literature around NISs is very often focused on a connection between the territory examined and the recommendations around technology policies, and does not sufficiently re-examine the fundamental subjects on which NISs are based: innovation capacities, innovation policy and economic development. The aim of theoretical contribution of this article is three-fold. First it will re-examine the NIS concept through its general conceptual evolution and in developing countries. Then it will analyse the legitimacy of innovation policies, through to their mode of governance in developing countries. And finally, it will re-examine the conditions that structure the latter with regard to globalised growth, and economic development that is sometimes impeded.JEL Codes: O31, F63, B41

CONCEPTUAL PROVISIONS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF UKRAINIAN NATIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEM

Urgency of the research. In most countries the national innovation system concept (NIS) is used to justify the economic policy content and to aim development at an innovative path as the basic one. Target setting. Тhe theoretical and practical justification question regarding the content of the NIS development concept in Ukraine still remain relevant. Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. The conceptual issues of the NIS development in different groups of countries have been studied in the works of prominent foreign and Ukrainian scholars, in particular, by R. D. Atkinson, V. M. Heyets, B. Godina, В. А. Lundvall, L. I. Fedulovoyi, S. Feinson, C. Freeman. Uninvestigated parts of general matters defining. Article should investigate the existence of differences between the NIS concept in developed and developing countries. The research objective. To analyze the NIS differences of developed and developing countries and to formulate the conceptual provisions for the NIS formation in Ukraine. The statement of basic materials. The article systematizes the existing scientific approaches to the development of national innovation systems (NISs), determines the NIS value for the development of a country. It emphasizes the existence of differences between the NIS concept in developed and developing countries. The article presents the development of basic points of the NIC concept that are the most important to understand its nature. Conclusions. The complexity of the NIS formation causes even some doubts as for the effective implementation of this concept in developing countries. It means that the NIS concept content and a set of tools for implementation requires a clear, scientific justification based on a strategic approach. This longterm strategy of innovative development by improving NIS can be considered the starting point of a state policy in the innovative sphere that will enable a country to develop adequate implementation toolkit and transform it into a legislative framework, targeted and comprehensive development programs.

Finland: Innovation Policy Tools under National Innovation System Crisis

Purpose: the for a long time Finland’s national innovation system (NIS) had been being one of the most successful and effective in the world. But some years ago the situation changed: Finland’s NIS run into system crisis. And today Finnish government tries to work out anticrisis innovation policy. So the purpose of this article is to show up the innovation policy instruments which are able put an end to the crisis and to determine conditions of their successful use. Methods: the article is based on the national innovation systems concept and government policy-mix aimed at the NIS development. Results: the authors show up how Finnish government looks for optimal policy-mix to overcome the crisis, demonstrate in details complementary components of the relevant innovation policy, describe conditions for their success and effectiveness to consider whether they are useful in other countries. Conclusions and Relevance: to overcome the NIS crisis the Finnish government uses such instruments as strategic programs of socio-economic development with targets which can’t be achieved without adequate high technology and innovative development complemented by incentives to make business innovate actively. The conditions of such policy success are: 1) such feature of Finnish society as all stakeholders of economic development consensus on one issue: the main factor of development are innovations; 2) anticrisis stage of Finnish innovative policy is based previously accumulated knowledge and know-how.

Regional Innovation Systems in Sweden

Over the past two decades, social scientists and governments have been paying more and more attention to regions as designated sites of innovation and competitiveness in the globalizing economy. Thus, innovation and innovation systems are becoming increasingly interesting to policy‐makers as ways of achieving their economic and social goals. Europe 2020, the European Union’s key strategy for the current decade, aims to foster a smart, sustainable, and inclusive economy. “Innovation has been placed at the heart of the strategy”, as it provides the “best means of successfully tackling major societal challenges” (European Commission 2010, p. 2). The new age of capitalism requires a new kind of region. In effect, regions are increasingly defined by the same criteria and elements which comprise a knowledge-intensive firm: continuous improvement, new ideas, knowledge creation and organizational learning (Florida 2003, p. 236). The increased policy and research interest in regional clusters and innovation systems reflects the growing significance of the regional level, and the importance of specific and regional resources, for stimulating the innovation capability and competitiveness of firms. The social and interactive practice of innovation also points to the importance of the relationship between the firm and its environment. The learning economy perspective affirms that learning and innovation are localized, not placeless processes (Storper 1997). Thus, it emphasizes that innovation is a territorially-embedded process, based not only on resources that are place specific but also on social and institutional contexts (Asheim, lsaksen 2002). This paper describes the role of innovations in Sweden and Swedish regions in development and growth, mainly by analysing the concept of regional innovation systems. Moreover, the actors and associations from the innovation system perspective are pointed out in the article. An analysis of the policy documents and a literature overview was the basis of the empirical material. Data comes from the OECD and EUROSTAT databases.

Cross-Border Collaboration in Economic Development: Institutional Change on the Anglo-Scottish Border

ABSTRACTThis article considers how changes in institutional structures affect the motivations of policymakers towards collaboration across borders. The Anglo-Scottish Border is used to illustrate the varied motivations for cross-border collaboration using models of partnership working. Adapting recent frameworks of analysis based on the concept of cross-border regional innovation systems, the Anglo-Scottish border is used to show how institutional changes can alter the balance between symmetries and asymmetries that tend to characterize cross-border relationships. Due to progressive devolution of functions to the Scottish Parliament since the 1990s, there are increasing contrasts in institutional settings and policy frameworks across this sub-state border. The nature of cross-border collaboration in two time periods is compared and contrasted. The first took place during 2000–2004 under the banner of “Border Visions.” This is contrasted with the more recent attempts to stimulate cross-border collaboration in the context of the Referendum on Scottish Independence in 2014. It is shown that the motivations for cross-border working can shift in response to changes in the economy and also in response to interactions between policy debates that occur simultaneously at different spatial scales.

Impact of Agricultural Innovation on Improved Livelihood and Productivity Outcomes Among Smallholder Farmers in Rural Nigeria

Agricultural research programs that are driven by Agricultural Innovation System concepts usually target to change the way in which low income rural agrarian households in a nation like Nigeria communicate with the market and the decision making strategies pertaining to development of their agri-business and the scarce resources which are at their disposal. As a result there has been a shift in the research paradigm in many African countries like Nigeria; from top down research systems to nonlinear dynamic systems that aim to enhance end users capacity to obtain and utilize knowledge and research outputs. The aim of this paper was therefore to assess the extent to which the use of these innovative agricultural research interventions impact upon the livelihood and productivity outcomes of rural smallholder farmers in Nigeria using a case study from the South west region of Nigeria. Using propensity score matching as a means of establishing a valid counterfactual and single differencing to measure impact, the study establishes that rural incomes and output are significantly impacted upon by agricultural research interventions that are driven by agricultural innovation systems concepts. The study however further finds that although participating households had better livelihood and productivity outcomes and more diversified income portfolios during the implementation of the innovative research intervention as a result of greater linkages to markets and capacity building opportunities; phasing out of the research program reduced the diversity of income portfolios and lead to the erosion of livelihoods. The study therefore concluded that agricultural research interventions that are driven by agricultural innovation system concepts have the potential to positively impact upon the livelihood outcomes of rural smallholder farmers in Nigeria. However there is need for greater capacity building of local extension agents and increased budgetary support to ensure understanding and application of agricultural innovation system concepts by local level public agricultural extension agents to sustain positive livelihood and productivity outcomes. In addition agricultural innovation system concepts should be mainstreamed in all public agricultural extension and research programs to ensure sustained rural innovation and robust livelihood and improved productivity outcomes.

Firms navigating through innovation spaces: a conceptualization of how firms search and perceive technological, market and productive opportunities globally.

The main contribution of this paper is a theory-based conceptual framework of innovation spaces, and how firms must navigate through them to innovate. The concept of innovation systems - at the regional, sectoral and national levels - have been highly influential. Previous literature developing the concept of innovation systems has stressed the importance of institutions, networks and knowledge bases at the regional, sectoral and national levels. This paper primarily draws upon an evolutionary and Schumpeterian economics perspective, in the following three senses. The conceptualization of 'innnovation spaces' focuses upon how and why firm search for innovations is influenced the opportunities within certain geographical contexts. This means that the firm create opportunities and can span different context, but they are influence by the context in term of the access, flow and co-evolution of ideas, resources, technology, people and knowledge, which help stimulate business innovation in terms of products, process and services. The paper concludes with an agenda for future research and especially the need to focus on globalization as a process of intensifying linkages across the globe.

Rise of latecomers and catch-up cycles in the world steel industry

This study analyzes the sources of changes in industrial leadership and catch-up by latecomers in the world steel industry since World War II. The shift of leadership from the United States to Japan in 1980 and the subsequent rise of Korea, with POSCO’s output surpassing that of Nippon Steel in 1998, is explained on the basis of a single theoretical framework. We rely on the neo-Schumpeterian concepts of sectoral innovation systems and windows of opportunity for latecomers in catching up with leading countries. These windows include changing generations of technologies, business cycles and demand shifts, and government regulations and other interventions. Japan realized a path-creating catch-up by taking advantage of the opportunity window associated with the emergence of new technologies. Entering as a state-owned enterprise, POSCO engaged in stage-skipping catch-up by utilizing the downturn as a window of opportunity to pay low prices for expanding its facilities and updating its technologies.

TEORIA ECONÔMICA E POLÍTICA DE INOVAÇÃO

RESUMO O objetivo do trabalho, como o seu título indica, consiste em identificar a teoria econômica que informa a política tecnológica. A metodologia utilizada está fundamentada em revisão de literatura, na qual se procurou verificar o lugar que a inovação ocupa em diferentes escolas do pensamento econômico. A literatura resenhada mostra que a teoria neoclássica e a teoria evolucionária são aquelas abordagens que têm se ocupado de maneira mais direta com a política industrial, nela incluída a política de inovação. As avaliações críticas sobre a teoria neoclássica são de que a sua ótica baseada nas "falhas de mercado" apresenta deficiências no tratamento da inovação, o que a torna limitada enquanto base conceitual para a política pública. A teoria evolucionária, com o seu conceito de sistema de inovação, dá um tratamento analítico mais elaborado ao processo de geração e difusão tecnológica, preconizando uma política pública baseada na ótica sistêmica da inovação.

Совершенствование правового обеспечения национальной инновационной системы Российской Федерации

The transition to innovative economy has been one of the topical issues in recent decades in Russia. However, legal acts acknowledge the lack of development of the Russian national innovation system. The author of this article considers the economic category “the concept of national innovation systems”, which is now widely used in advanced countries for the development of innovative legal relationship and is analyzed by the economic science. The author notes that this concept has a number of advantages, and thus proposes to improve the regulatory framework of the Russian Federation on the basis of this concept. Despite the fact that there is no common approach to the definition of the national innovation system, the author concludes that the concept of the national innovation system, contained in the legislation of the Russian Federation has a number of significant shortcomings and can not be considered as satisfactory and requires prompt revision. The author reveals the existing problems in the legal base, that prevent the development of innovative legal relationship and offers proposals to be taken as a basis for preparation of draft legal acts in the sphere of innovative economy.

Cross-border regional innovation systems: conceptual backgrounds, empirical evidence and policy implications

ABSTRACTThe concept of cross-border regional innovation systems (CBRIS) surfaced in the literature on economic geography through discourses that highlighted the need for broadening innovation systems to cross-border contexts. Since these early discussions, the theoretical backgrounds of CBRIS have been elaborated through notions of geographical scale, proximity and related variety in a range of conceptual papers proposing CBRIS as a comprehensive framework for analysing regional cross-border integration. However, the empirical literature on CBRIS has failed to keep up with the advances in conceptualization. This paper discusses the reasons behind this mismatch, which means that the concept still rests upon and draws policy suggestions based on a thin evidence base. Directions for further research are pointed out by underlining the need for holistic empirical validation of the concept together with the need of understanding how suggested policy measures based on CBRIS reasoning have been implemented in border regions, and their effectiveness in promoting cross-border integration.

The National Innovation System

The article considers the prerequisites of the concept of the national innovation system (NIS), and it demonstrates the role of neoclassical economic theory as well as evolutionary, institutional, and neo-Schumpeterian approaches to the formation of the NIS. The article identifies problems that must be addressed by the new concept, and it describes the main characteristics of the approaches that it fosters for the analysis of the NIS, including the analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches. The author proposes an alternative approach for developing NIS theory on the basis of the structural-objective and functional approaches to the analysis of the national innovation system.

Mode 3 knowledge production: systems and systems theory, clusters and networks

With the comprehensive term of “Mode 3,” we want to draw a conceptual link between systems and systems theory and want to demonstrate further how this can be applied to knowledge in the next steps. Systems can be understood as being composed of “elements”, which are tied together by a “self-rationale”. For innovation, often innovation clusters and innovation networks are being regarded as important. By leveraging systems theory for innovation concepts, one can implement references between the elements of a system and clusters (innovation clusters) and the self-rationale of a system and that of networks (innovation networks). One advantage of this approach is that it makes the tools of systems theory effectively available for research on innovation. Based on original research about the European Union, also the concept of a multi-level hierarchy promises conceptual opportunities. Further integrating systems theory, we can speak of multi-level systems of knowledge (following different levels of aggregation) and multi-level systems of innovation (also following different levels of aggregation). The popular and powerful concept of the national innovation system is being chronically challenged by continuous and ongoing processes of supranational and global integration. Conceptually unlocking the national innovation systems in favor of a broader multi-level logic implies furthermore to accept the existence of national innovation systems but, at the same time, also to emphasize their global embeddedness. Our suggested catch-phrase of “Mode 3”, therefore, integrates several considerations that want to relate systems theory, knowledge, and innovation more directly to each other, and this should be understood as a contribution to a dynamically evolving general discourse on the topics of knowledge and innovation.

THE NATIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEM IN RUSSIA: CONDITIONS OF FUNC-TIONING

The article covers the problem actuality of creating the national innovation system in Russia. Тhe national innovation system is considered as a factor in international competitiveness and a basis for effective economic development. The authors examine the genesis of the concept of the national innovation system and its structure. We consider a comprehensive approach to the creation of the national innovation system in the re-search of some Russian authors. We present statistics on the level of innovation activity in Russia and compare them with those in developed economies. We describe several approaches to establish an effective national innovation system. We describe a well-known in world practice types of innovation development: innovation and imitation. The author conclude that in Russia may create a national innovation system of mixed type.

Inovační systém regionu Tampere jako příklad dobré praxe pro Jihomoravský kraj

Research, development and innovation is considered to be a main driver of economic development. Innovation policy becomes therefore one of the most important public policies. There exists general agreement that the best way to support innovation is to aim at the regional level while realizing innovation policy. Proximity enables regional actors to create tacit knowledge ensuring powerful competitive advantages for both firms and regions. At the same time, the concept of regional innovation systems is the most promising way to support innovation and knowledge transfer in the region. The paper presents the case of Tampere innovation system as an example of good practice for the South Moravian Region. Although it is only possible to learn limitedly from other regions it the case of innovation policy (because of regional specifics), an analysis of Tampere innovation system can provide useful information. The paper argues that the most important strength of Tampere innovation system is an intensive cooperation between actors of innovation process based on long-lasting trust.