The Intricate and Evolving Fabrics of Innovation Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Transforming innovation into systemic economic and social development is dependent on a host of interlinked factors and agents. These include the quality of the national education system, industrial relations, the quality of technical and scientific organisations, government policies and cultural traditions. It is the role of firms to convert ideas and inventions into innovation. Governments play a supporting role by formulating appropriate industrial and technology policies and providing funds for research. The higher education sector plays a critical role in terms of educating and training people as well as performing research that adds to the stock of new ideas in the economy. Innovation is therefore regarded not only as the work of individual firms but also as a collective effort, requiring diverse and practical  knowledge, resources and expertise.
As a result, scholars, consultants and policy-makers have increasingly acknowledged the importance of analysing and constructing innovation systems at a national, regional and sectoral level. However, for most of these systems, innovation follows  a linear approach and is often characterised by a clear division of work. The emergence of the Triple Helix System, which is described as a reaction to these traditional systems, advocates a more predominant role to the university and its strong relationships with other actors within the system.
However, this approach to innovation system is often described as incapable of addressing the basic features, specificities and constraints of developing countries. In addition to the debate on developing countries, this Special Issue intends to focus on the role of intermediary and non-governmental actors and the increasing internationalisation of the concept of innovation system. Examples of topics of interest to this Special Issue include:

• Inter-organizational linkages with regard to knowledge creation, diffusion and exploitation.
• The impact of the international dimension on innovation systems.
• Re-conceptualising and adapting the ideas behind the major innovation systems to developing countries.
• The impact of proximity (geographical, social, cognitive, cultural etc) on innovation systems.
• Role of intermediary firms which act as ‘bridging institutions’ within innovation systems.
• Systems of innovation and open innovation.
• The role of the state in shaping their innovation systems.
• Higher education system and innovation systems.

Prof. Dr. Mohammed Saad
Guest Editor

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• national innovation system
• regional innovation system
• sectoral innovation system
• developing countries
• open innovation
• intermediary firms