Innovation Systems Literature Research Articles

National Innovation Systems and Global Value Chain Participation: The Role of Entrepreneurship

The national innovation systems (NISs) literature has focused on institutional and industrial structures while overlooking creative individual agencies. This gap may leave unanswered the question of why some countries with weak institutional structures still improve global value chain (GVC) participation. This study, thus, investigates how national entrepreneurial dynamism impacts a country’s GVC participation as conditioned by other elements of NISs. The empirical results show that entrepreneurship is positively associated with GVC participation. Additionally, this positive relationship is stronger among countries with lower levels of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and smaller amounts of R&D employment. The findings suggest that entrepreneurship contributes to a country’s GVC participation and helps a country overcome its institutional weaknesses and, thus, achieve better globalization performance. Therefore, the study adds to NISs literature with creative individual agency, reveals the national internal avenue for GVC participation, and enriches the research on the NIS-GVC relationship.

Analysis of the European energy innovation system: Contribution of the Framework Programmes to the EU policy objectives

This study analyses the properties of the networks constructed by the funded energy-related research consortia to assess their support to the objectives of the European Union’s energy technologies and research policies. By developing research consortia, partners and projects are linked to form a network that generates relationship networks (innovation systems). Although many authors assessed this innovation system from different perspectives, few studies aim to identify the properties of its networks. From the innovation systems perspective, this study fills this gap in the literature by applying Social Network Analysis to determine the network cohesion properties and the centrality measures of its nodes, thereby enlarging the innovation systems literature in the field of modelling and performance assessment. The results indicate that the effectiveness of the innovation systems depends on the geographical distribution of the consortia and the diversity of the participants, revealing significant performance differences in each of the research fields within the energy programme. Based on these conclusions, this paper provides recommendations for policymakers and participants in these European research programmes.

Catch-up and the entry strategies of latecomers: Chinese firms in the mobile phone sector

Abstract As interfaces between human beings and the digital world, mobile phones have evolved from relatively simple devices (e.g., feature phones) to complex products (e.g., smartphones). Many firms in emerging countries such as China have successfully entered the mobile phone sector. A research question that emerges from the evidence on China is whether the entry strategies of these catching up firms have been affected by the introduction of smartphones. In order to investigate this question, the article follows the methodology of evolutionary theory and history-friendly models. It first examines historically the various strategies of the Chinese entrants in the mobile phone sector. On the basis of this empirical analysis, it then develops appreciative theorizing on the factors that have affected the catch-up entry strategies. Our results show that the successful catch-up entry strategies differ depending on the sectoral environment. A technology-driven strategy is more appropriate when there is a market sheltered from competition, so that technological capabilities can be accumulated; on the contrary a marketing-driven strategy is more appropriate when standardized technological solutions become widely available. The article contributes to the catch-up literature by identifying a new entry strategy and by pointing at the role of the sectoral environment, and to the sectoral innovation system literature by addressing the catch-up strategies of latecomer firms under different technological, industrial structure, and market conditions.

How Do Intermediary Organizations Support SMEs to Enhance their Absorptive Capacity?

Researchers have discussed intermediary organizations as the crucial facilitators of technology transfer in an innovation system. They employed the intermediary term in different settings in the innovation system literature. In past decades, scholars highlighted the importance of intermediaries repeatedly. However, few studies examine intermediaries’ role in the innovation system. In this paper, we underline the significant role of intermediaries in boosting absorptive capacity in small and medium-sized enterprises by introducing a framework that expresses intermediaries' functions and their services in absorptive capacity as an essential element of successful knowledge and technology transfer.

Catch-up dynamics in early industry lifecycle stages—a typology and comparative case studies in four clean-tech industries

Abstract The literature on catch-up cycles has not yet systematically conceptualized how catch-up dynamics differ between the various industries that are emerging in the green techno-economic paradigm. We address this gap by connecting catch-up cycle theory with an industry typology from global innovation systems (GISs) literature, which distinguishes four generic industry types with footloose, spatially sticky, market-, and production-anchored innovation system characteristics. Catch-up patterns in early industry lifecycle stages are expected to systematically differ between these four industry types. This assumption is explored based on a comparative case study of the solar photovoltaics, wind power, solar water heaters, and membrane bioreactors industries, each of which exemplifies one of the four generic GIS configurations. We find that the speed and disruptiveness of early leadership changes differ significantly between the four industries, and that the effectiveness of capability upgrading strategies and catching-up policies are contingent on the innovation and valuation characteristics of each industry’s underlying GIS type.

On the coexistence of positive and negative externalities in the inter-powertrain relationships

The green knowledge-based economy has complicated the dynamical knowledge interactions in the multi-technology sector of transportation that involves a constellation of interrelated powertrain technologies, including the internal combustion engine, hybrid and battery electric vehicles (ICEV, BEV, and HEV). Based on the biological ecology perspective and the technological innovation system (TIS) framework, we explore the dynamical inter-powertrain relationships in terms of knowledge diffusion over 1985–2016. We measure their knowledge diffusion by extracting patents and publications forward citations from the Scopus and Derwent databases, respectively. Quantifying by the Lotka-Volterra (L-V) equations, our results show that powertrains support and inhibit their knowledge diffusion growth by projecting positive and negative externalities, which are carried through the TIS co-dynamics. Our results reveal these externalities are manifested in a mix of biological relationship modes, such as symbiosis, parasitism, commensalism, and amensalism. We, therefore, challenge the assumed pure competition between ICEV and BEV or their predator-prey relationships with HEV by elaborating on the notions of ‘creative destruction’ and ‘creative accumulation’. Our research contributes to the innovation systems literature by accommodating ‘knowledge diffusion co-dynamics’ as an extension to the TIS framework, making it more outward oriented. Moreover, the co-existence of positive and negative externalities builds up a multi cross-path interactions view that extends the conventional single-path view in the path dependency literature. Our research drives insightful knowledge for strategising and policy making in regard with investing in new disruptive technologies, sustaining the incumbent technology, or hybridising them as a transitionary (or stationary) solution towards sustainable mobility transition.

The Missing Middle: Technicians, Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing

This essay explores the nature and causes of the so-called ‘missing middle’ (that is, the UK’s failure to train sufficient technicians or workers with intermediate-level skills). Evidence is drawn from studies of UK advanced manufacturing industries, in particular those seeking to innovate by deploying new technologies. The root cause of the problem lies in a 'system failure' - as that term is understood in the innovation systems literature - in the UK education and training system.

Modelling Efficiency in Regional Innovation Systems: A Two-Stage Data Envelopment Analysis Problem with Shared Outputs within Groups of Decision-Making Units

Regional Innovation Systems (RISs) literature usually focuses on the comparative performance of different regions and analyzes how each region is utilizing its own dedicated resources. The available resources can be shared by many firms which are grouped by industry, just as universities collaborate with many firms in many industries. This paper studies a region in Mexico and the firms within that region with the aim being to identify which of those firms are using the available resources in the best way. We use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a methodology for evaluating the relative efficiencies of the firms, based on their multiple inputs and outputs, and considering their processes as being divided into two stages. An important problem in this setting is that the two-stage process exhibits the characteristic of having outputs being shared among the firms in each industry; this makes it more challenging to determine independent efficiency scores for each firm in each industry, where we need to cater for this phenomenon. To address this, the current article presents a methodology for measuring efficiency in situations where Decision Making Units (DMUs) share outputs with other units within the same group. By solving this problem, we can identify the best-performers and their strategies regarding how they use the available resources in the region.

Illuminating homes with LEDs in India: Rapid market creation towards low-carbon technology transition in a developing country

Near-term climate change mitigation calls for technological innovation and widespread implementation of appropriate technologies. This is salient in emerging economies, where impending socio-economic and infrastructural transitions hold immense potential for locking-in low-carbon development pathways. Yet, little is understood about how developing countries can scale appropriate technology transitions, given their often underdeveloped technological innovation capabilities and supporting infrastructures and finances. This paper examines a recent, rapid, and ongoing transition of India's lighting market to light emitting diode (LED) technology, from a negligible market share to LEDs becoming the dominant lighting products within five years, despite the country's otherwise limited visibility in the global solid-state lighting industry. Annual sales of LED bulbs grew more than 130 times to over 650 million bulbs between 2014–2018, with over 30 billion kWh of estimated annual energy savings. Focusing on this striking story of technology transition, this paper analyzes India's LED uptake using semi-structured interviews and drawing on the technology innovation systems literature. The results show that the success of transition coexists with its share of shortfalls, and that there is an important tension between the lowering of upfront costs of low-carbon technologies and the efforts to enhance domestic technological capabilities. The paper discusses the results for the Indian LED case and emphasizes the importance of consistent strategic action taking into account all (and not limited) parts of the technology innovation system, while also providing insights on how mitigation technologies can be developed and deployed in developing countries.

International markets and technological innovation systems: The case of offshore wind

This research addresses the challenging question of how to support industry formation policies without relying on expensive domestic market formation strategies. Innovation systems literature classically focuses on the need to support home market development to encourage both technological diffusion and generation of a promising technology. However, it is possible to decouple these notions in a national context under certain conditions. Through in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in the Dutch offshore wind industry, we unearth the conditions for young and established firms to access international markets in the absence of a home market. We determine that established firms can access international markets without significant hinderances or domestic support and can help form the backbone of an emerging industry. Young firms are dependent on a well-functioning innovation system, which facilitates international market access through three pathways: 1) via local incumbents; 2) direct access to international markets; 3) via protected niche-spaces.

Internationalisation in entrepreneurial ecosystem and innovation system literatures: a systematic review

Entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) has emerged an important new concept within the entrepreneurship and innovation research literatures. It emphasises the supporting role of the local and regional environment for the entrepreneur and has a specific focus on high growth firms (HGFs). EE research has similarities with other literature streams specifically the innovation systems (IS) literature but the relationship between them is ambiguous, which hampers the theory development. Furthermore, it is unclear how internationalisation is approached by the IS and the EE research. To fill this gap, the current paper offers a systematic literature review (SLR) of the similarities and differences between the IS and the EE concepts in the specific context of HGFs' internationalisation. We analyse 67 relevant peer-reviewed journal articles. The findings suggest that, on one hand, the EE has some similarities to IS due to their emphasis on the importance of the external business environment. On the other hand, EE is strongly centred on individual entrepreneurs and high growth ventures giving less importance to the government's role, which has been the case in IS literature. We also found that the internationalisation of HGFs to be an under-researched area of research in this domain, which requires further empirical analysis.

Az innovációs rendszerek irodalmának áttekintése

THE AIMS OF THE PAPER The systemic concept of innovation is now widespread, which implicates that innovation is considered as the outcome of the interplay between different actors situated in a specific environment. The study aims to introduce this concept and to analyze the literature of the innovation systems. The paper includes the definition of national, regional, technological, and sectoral innovation systems, and the specification of their position in the literature. Besides, the paper examines the new challenges that innovation systems must face. METHODOLOGY This study is a literature review, which consists of three parts. First, we describe the four types of innovation systems according to the most influential publications. Then, we analyze the evolution of the literature with bibliometric tools and describe the relationship between the different types of innovation systems. Finally, we introduce the new theoretical challenges of innovation systems. MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS The results show, although during the last three decades there has been a dynamic rise in the innovation system literature, in the last few years it stopped. It shows that the innovation system approach is beyond its most dynamic expansion. Also, it faces several challenges in order to remain a relevant analytical framework for newer aspects of innovation research. Therefore several approaches have been integrated that take into account the social and environmental impacts of innovation. RECOMMENDATIONS The innovation system as an analytical framework needs to be renewed, but it is still a widespread, relevant concept. In addition to the efforts made so far, further research is needed to enable a broader interpretation of innovation within this framework. Acknowledgements: This publication/research has been supported by the European Union and Hungary and co-financed by the European Social Fund through the project EFOP-3.6.2-16-2017-00017, titled Sustainable, intelligent and inclusive regional and city models.

Institution-driven innovation in Guangdong firms: Moderating effects of in-house formal R&D and industrial environment turbulence

AbstractThis article explores the moderating effects of in-house formal R&D and industrial environment turbulence on the relationship between institutional drivers, in terms of incentives and pressures, and firm innovation. Hypotheses were tested on a sample of manufacturing firms in Guangdong Province of China, where institutional changes and governmental policies play prominent roles in shaping innovation. Results show a positive main effect of institutional incentives, but an insignificant main effect of institutional pressures. In-house formal R&D and industrial turbulence negatively moderate the institutional incentives–innovations relationship, yet positively moderate the institutional pressures–innovations relationship. This study links the innovation systems literature with the institution-based view and deepens the understanding of the joint forces of institutional transitions, industrial changes, and resource heterogeneity in shaping innovation. The findings also inform managers and policymakers in institutional transition environments to better manage institutional drivers of innovation by considering firm- and industry-specific characteristics.

Innovation systems and entrepreneurial ecosystems: Implications for policy and practice in Latin America

This paper examines the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems and the more established concept of systems of innovation and considers their application in Latin America, where many countries are currently experiencing political and economic upheaval. The paper finds that current entrepreneurial ecosystem literature is not directly applicable to most of Latin America, as it takes for granted features of an advanced economy, while the innovation system literature favours studies of well-functioning economies and innovation in high-technology sectors. Findings suggest that network and institutional perspectives may enrich both concepts in theoretical and analytical term and complementary innovation system and entrepreneurial ecosystem perspectives appear well suited in further defining the needs and demands of local production structures and existing resource and knowledge capabilities. The paper suggests the need for measurable transformations in Latin American production and support structures that include embracing social, organisational, and interactional innovation and socially oriented entrepreneurial activity. The paper encourages further research to identify the drivers and economic consequences of distinctive Latin American entrepreneurial ecosystems and for researchers to adopt an evolutionary perspective that acknowledges historical trajectories in different regions, where local social, political, and economic regimes will influence the trajectory and success of future innovation policy initiatives.

Why do we need ‘Problem-oriented Innovation System (PIS)’ for solving macro-level societal problems?

ABSTRACT The number of theories of innovation systems has grown considerably over the past two decades and several innovation system approaches have been developed. The focus of most has been on the development of technological innovations which create economic value.However, addressing macro-level societal problems – sociotechnical and environmental challengesin which the production, dissemination and use of social and technical knowledge and technology can potentially resolve the problem – has been overlooked. The present study argues that in order to resolve such problems, a combination of technical innovations (covering the technological aspects of the problem) and social innovations (covering the social aspects of the problem) are required.Instead of focusing on the development of a particular technology or industry, an innovation system must focus on solving problems; it must utilize technical innovations alongside economic and social innovations to do so.To this end, the present study highlights the need for a framework for the analysis of macro-level societal problems by reviewing innovation systems literature and proposes a new approach named “Problem-oriented innovation systems”. We conceptualize this approach based on event history analysis and through case study of the US air pollution problem and the way it was successfully resolved by using technical and social innovations.The results show that a problem-oriented innovation system has eight functions: System monitoring and guidance, technical and social knowledge creation, technical and social entrepreneurship, knowledge dissemination, collaboration and synergy, public awareness, standardization and resource mobilization. Finally, a framework for analyzing the innovation process is proposed to solve the macro-level societal problem. This approach can be used to solve global problems such as global warming and climate change which ask for collaboration among different countries.

Evolution of innovation system literature: Intellectual bases and emerging trends

The evolution of innovation system literature is scrutinized to delineate the conceptual trends over the past 30 years. We applied the Sigma index which is supposed to include not only the frontier contributions in the field but also the intellectual bases conveying transformative concepts. Our examination shows that after the establishment of the National Innovation System (NIS) as a principal framework, Regional IS literature emerged as a main branch during the period of 2002–2007, while Technological IS developed as the second main branch from 2007 to 2012. Surprisingly, Sectoral IS has not yet generated a separate constellation, whereas the period after 2012 mainly witnessed the emergence of Triple Helix and Agricultural IS as two new branches. The core of the literature has become classified into persistent intellectual bases (e.g. Lundvall 1992 and Nelson, 1993), diminishing pioneers (e.g. Freeman 1987; Edquist, 1997), emerging works (e.g. Hekkert et al., 2008; Bathelt et al. 2004) and fluctuating others (e.g. Carlsson, 1991; Malerba 2002). Conceptual implications are discussed at the end.

A technological innovation systems approach to analyse the roles of intermediaries in eco-innovation

The literature on intermediaries faces challenges regarding how to conceptualise and empirically demonstrate the system-level impact of intermediaries. Thus, researchers and policy analysts may experience difficulties in grasping the potential contributions of intermediaries beyond individual projects and firms to aggregate levels of an innovation system. This article combines innovation intermediary and technological innovation systems literature to develop fundamentals of an approach for analysing how organisations acting as intermediaries support firms in eco-innovation and potentially contribute to technological innovation system functions. The operationalisation of the analytical approach is illustrated using case studies on a total of eight support organisations acting as intermediaries in the region of Scania, Sweden and North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. For researchers and policy analysts, the analytical approach presented in this article offers the opportunity for a step-by-step, comprehensive and transparent analysis of different types of intermediaries, their roles, and potential contributions to innovation system functions.

A bibliometric review on innovation systems and ecosystems: a research agenda

Purpose The ecosystem perspective on innovation and business has emerged as the secret sauce of innovative organizations. While its theoretical foundations are premised on innovation system literature, the broad adoption of the ecosystem concept has resulted in conceptual ambiguity. The purpose of this paper is to tackle the ambiguous use of innovation ecosystem terminology and structure a conceptual frame for the field, identifying definitions of an innovation ecosystem and how the concept has been established in previous literature. Design/methodology/approach This paper examines the ambiguous use of terminology by reviewing the literature with bibliometric coupling and co-citation analysis by which thematic differences in ecosystem literature were identified. The study gathered the scientific publications from Thomson Reuters Web of Sciences Core Collection (n=4,681) from 1990 to 2015. Findings Six major bibliometrically coupled clusters were identified, of which the three largest clusters are innovation system studies, regional innovation studies and technological innovation studies. In addition, further analysis shows an emerging cluster that is focused on ecosystems, having its roots in eight seminal papers. This ecosystem research cluster includes seven sub-clusters, such as innovation ecosystem studies, business ecosystem studies and studies focusing on ecosystem development. Research limitations/implications The authors’ approach highlights how a lot of recent ecosystem studies actually belong to previous, well-developed research streams. However, there is also a separate, emergent research stream that includes the innovation and ecosystem studies. As a research implication, the paper concludes by suggesting the research agenda for further studies. Originality/value Even though literature on innovation systems and ecosystems is extensive literature, no studies have captured the emergence of the ecosystems approach and its relation with the systems of innovation literature.

Quelles frontières géographiques pour les systèmes d’innovation technologique ?

Cet article contribue aux débats concernant les échelles géographiques des Technological Innovation Systems (TIS). Une première partie explicite comment d’un point de vue méthodologique les co-brevets constituent un outil pertinent pour appréhender un TIS et poser la question de son échelle spatiale. La suite de l’article étudie les co-brevets déposés par les 10 constructeurs automobiles sur le domaine du véhicule hybride sur la période 2000-2013. Sur la base de 3250 co-brevets, nous montrons que 1) l’indice de nationalisation est plutôt élevé pour 5 constructeurs et très faibles pour trois autres démontrant l’hétérogénéité des pratiques et des frontières spatiales du TIS ; 2) cette hétérogénéité se retrouve pour ce qui concerne les types de partenaires mobilisés et leurs localisations. La dernière section en retire des conclusions analytiques pour l’analyse des TIS et leurs frontières géographiques. Codes JEL : O31, O33, L62

Harnessing innovative HIV point-of-care testing for health systems strengthening: early lessons from Zimbabwe

ABSTRACTQuestions linking social needs with new technologies have continued to be raised but only very recently have they begun to occupy more of the centre-stage in innovation policy debates. In this narrative review, we draw from innovation and health systems literature and thinking to trace and analyse the deployment and uptake of innovative point-of-care testing in the early infant diagnosis of HIV in Zimbabwe, one of 15 UNITAID supported early adopter countries. Following a literature review and discussions with policy-makers in Zimbabwe, we distil key lessons from this implementation context and delineate the implications of our findings for the debates on new technological and socio-economic approaches and the health systems strengthening agenda in low-middle income countries (LMICs). We conclude this article by proposing new avenues for future research.