It is often claimed that what traditionally have been called technology policies in many industrialised countries have undergone major changes during the last decades. Until the 1980s technology policies were primarily focused on financial support to different R&D producing organisations. The...

Institutions (including regulations) are constitutive elements of innovation systems, and therefore cornerstones of innovation policy. Focusing on (soft and hard) regulation, the paper identifies the most salient regulatory areas from the perspective of the innovation system. When asking about...

According to the Innovation Union Scoreboard, published by the European Commission every year, Sweden has been, and still is, an innovation leader within the EU and one of the most innovative countries in Europe. In the Innovation Union Scoreboard 2014 (European Union, 2014: 5), Sweden has the...

Who produces scientific and technical knowledge these days? What type of knowledge is being produced and for what purposes? Why are firms and governments funding research and development? This chapter studies the role of knowledge production (especially R&D activities) in the innovation process...

The notion of path dependent regional industrial development has recently received increasing attention in economic geography, innovation studies and related fields. A core idea is that pre-existing industrial and institutional structures constitute the regional environment in which current...

This paper aims at shedding some light on the challenges of designing and implementing STI policies in developing countries. In particular, we discuss the problems of alignment of STI policies with the national economic development agenda, the alignment of innovation system policy with ST...

The concept of a holistic innovation policy is defined in this article, with discussions of what it is, why it is relevant, and how it can be implemented to enhance product innovation. It is shown that the innovation systems approach has diffused rapidly during the latest decades and has...

The main question that guides this paper is how governments are focusing (and must focus) on competence building (education and training) when designing and implementing innovation policies. With this approach, the paper aims at filling the gap between the existing literature on competences on...

The framework of regional innovation systems highlights the systemic nature of economic development and the importance of coordination of policy activities. Such coordination presupposes an understanding of the underlying problems and how they can be addressed. Generic problems in innovation...

‘Activities’ in innovation systems are the determinants of the development and diffusion of innovations. Examples are R&D, provision of organizations and institutions, financing of innovations, incubation, etc. These activities are partly performed by private organizations and partly by...