Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Shulin, Gu
Author-Workplace-Name: United Nations University, Institute for New Technologies
Title: Toward an Analytical Framework for National Innovation System
Abstract: This paper reports on the preliminary development of a conceptual framework for
	 national innovation systems, with a special reference to the problems and
	 difficulties currently faced by developing countries in their industrial
	 developments, in the circumstances of economic globalization and liberalization.
	 This is an effort aimed at elaborating an analytic instrument focusing central
	 attention on endogenous capability building in relation to national technology
	 policy issues.
	 The first section of the paper presents an outline conceptualization of national
	 innovation systems, emphasizing that learning, learning efficiency, and the
	 institutional context of learning constitute a coherent core of the approach of a
	 national innovation system. It is argued that the concept of these core elements is
	 sensitive to the unique features of industrially underdeveloped countries in
	 recognizing (1) the indispensability of building and restructuring institutions
	 throughout the modernization process, and (2) the distinctive and complex role of
	 government policy in compensating for inadequately developed market mechanisms, and
	 in inducing institutional transformation.
	 The second part of the paper highlights some essential aspects of the approach to
	 research suggested by the concept of a national innovation system, through
	 illustrating issues and methods confronted under the headings of:
	 1) distinguishing between development stages;
	 2) industrial structure and learning;
	 3) institutional set-up and learning;
	 4) the market mechanism, opening to the world, and learning;
	 5) economic reform, path-shifting and policy learning; and
	 6) institutional and technological analysis.
	 It demonstrates that while the concept remains about national competitiveness and
	 national specificity, the focus for analysis using this concept is on micro-level
	 events. It is at lower levels that the delicate mechanisms of interactive
	 technological, institutional, and policy learning work. The thrust of the
	 discussion in the second section, although the issues and methods illustrated are
	 by themselves more pertinent to countries in which certain institutions and
	 technological capabilities have been established, points to the importance of
	 carefully identifying critical issues before applying the analytical approach of a
	 national innovation system.
Keywords: Innovations, National Policy,  Industrial Development, Globalization, Developing Countries
Series: Discussion Paper
Creation-Date: 1996
Number: 1996-05
File-URL: https://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/discussion-papers/9605.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 108 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unuint:199605