Rethinking a National Innovation System: The Small Country as 'SME'

Most debates and discussions regarding trends towards globalization and localization, occur in the over-arching context of the knowledge economy, and focus on the impact of these trends on innovation and competitiveness in the 'Triad' of Europe, Japan and the USA. However, in the knowledge economy, competitiveness is increasingly based upon access to knowledge, in the form of skills and capabilities, wherever it is located in the world including the smaller industrialized countries. This paper extends the discussion of the impacts of globalization and localization to encompass other nations and their 'national innovation systems'. Policy underpinning national systems to encourage innovation is increasingly being called into question by the general move towards globalization and localization. Multi-national enterprises (MNEs) and localized clusters in the emerging technologies determine and control technological paths beyond and through national borders. Small industrialized nations which have neither a broad technological base, extensive science and technology infrastructure or resources, nor MNEs based in the country, run the risk of being marginalized when competing globally, through an inability to become involved in these international economic networks. A traditional policy response by small countries to the impact of globalization is to metaphorically 'batten down the hatches' against the invasion of MNEs and the exploitation of local resources. However, an exploration of the drivers of both globalization and localization in the knowledge economy, and the observed impacts of globalization on New Zealand, suggests that a suitable strategy for small nations might be the reverse scenario. By using the analogy of the small country as a small and medium sized enterprise (SME) in the global economy dominated by large nations and MNEs, SME advantages and disadvantages are mapped onto potential small country advantages and disadvantages. The simile is extended to propose a small-country strategy based on exploiting the documented advantages of SMEs, such as flexibility and use of external networks, for an outward-looking, supplier-orientated innovation policy. Such a policy has to be designed for rapid communication and flexibility, and has to encourage committed technological accumulation and networking, to maximize national absorptive and transformative capacities.     

Knowledge investments, business R&D and innovativeness of countries: A qualitative meta-analytic comparison

The relationship between knowledge investments, innovation and competitiveness is an important topic in both academic research and economic policy and has been studied extensively over the past decades. Nowadays, investments in private and public R&D are believed to make up the heart of a modern knowledge economy. The present paper adopts an evolutionary economics perspective and investigates whether, in addition to private R&D activities, also institutional support systems and policy interventions play a role in inducing innovation initiatives and creating impacts on the performance and competitiveness of industries. We aim to find support for the hypothesis that the competitiveness of industries in the international arena is sustained by the dynamic interaction between national, regional and sectoral innovation systems. This may provide stakeholders with a better understanding of the context in which they operate. Since according to the evolutionary metaphor, the growth of an innovation system follows complex dynamics that cannot simply be analysed within a static quantitative equilibrium framework, we use here an alternative approach based on qualitative pattern recognition analysis originating from artificial intelligence analysis. Besides R&D expenditures, human capital expenditures are regarded as the major input in the knowledge creation process in our analytical framework. To this end, in our paper a qualitative causal model that maps out conditional relations between key factors in national innovation systems will be described. The focus of our investigation is on systematic patterns in the competitiveness of the EU Member States, using statistical information on innovation input and output data from the European Innovation Scoreboard. In our analysis we find support for the hypothesis that there are indeed significant interactions between distinct institutional levels, which may provide guidance to the strategic orientation of nations and the European Union in terms of the emphasis on competitiveness vis-à-vis cohesion.     

我国建设创新型国家的科技创新政策研究综述

走具有中国特色的自主创新道路、建设创新型国家,离不开科技创新政策的支撑。综述了我国知识创新政策、技术创新政策、区域科技创新政策、科技中介服务体系创新政策、国防科技创新体系政策和科技管理体制改革与科技决策机制创新研究现状,指出了我国创新政策研究的不足及其今后努力的方向。     

The co-evolution of business incubation and national innovation systems in Taiwan

Incubation has already proven to be of great value in promoting small and medium enterprise (SME) entrepreneurship activities and technological development in developed and developing countries. Incubation not only provides a diversified and integrated service for entrepreneurial ventures but also contributes upward to regional and national innovation and economic growth. Building upon the logic of co-evolution theory, this paper argues that incubation acts at the meso-level as a critical interface between macro-innovation systems and micro-business ventures. These multi-directional coupling elements in innovation ecology co-evolve to achieve collective interests and excellence, which in turn may stimulate technological development and social change. Important processes/mechanisms, including a policy kit and action, strategic networking, supportive associations, knowledge and intellectual capital management, among others, are discussed. Drawing on the national innovation system (NIS) and business incubation (BI) experience in Taiwan, we discuss the future prospects of incubation and innovation policies, including industrializing and globalizing incubation activities and virtual business incubation.     

区域生产力创新及分析评价方法

区域经济的发展随着创新全球化和创新国家的建立越来越依靠于区域生产能力的创新。区域生产力的创新不仅引领区域经济的发展而且可以带动国家经济的增长。文章着重论述了区域创新能力的内涵和分析评价指标体系,为分析比较和发展区域生产力创新提供了科学的方法。     

Innovation behaviour of firms in a small open economy: the case of the Czech manufacturing industry

This paper describes the role of R&D and analyse its impact on productivity in the Czech economy in a CDM model. Four CIS waves (2001, 2003, 2006, and 2008) were used in the CDM model. The estimated low innovation input elasticity around 9 % describes the Czechs as poor innovators in the EU. This economy was a developing country until 2006 and we have observed a substantive FDI inflow since 1998. Multinationals have a higher sales share now and are an essential part of the economy. Multinationals engage less in innovation, but innovating MNEs spend more on R&D per employee and appropriate more from their innovated goods. The FDI inflow was a form of innovation wave. Innovation output is an important determinant for boosting productivity among SME’s. Public support had positive effect on innovation intensity; however, no additional effect on innovation output.     

政府资助对中小企业创新研发的影响

现阶段我国仍属于新兴市场经济国家,市场机制并不完善,中小企业的生存环境不容乐观.为提升中小企业市场竞争力,各级政府加大对其创新研发的资金和政策扶持力度对帮助其持续稳定发展有着十分重要的意义.本文从深市中小板上市企业中筛选出了471家企业在2014—2018年间的面板数据,利用回归模型进行实证检验,以探究政府资助政策对中小企业创新研发的影响.结果显示:政府的资助政策在整体上对科技研发投入产生了积极的作用,但对创新研发的产出没有直接影响;只有对科技研发人员进行投入才能给创新产出带来积极影响.因而,政府资助应该着重加强对科技人员的投入.     

经济全球化,知识化对全球可持续发展的影响

２１世纪将是知识经济占主导地位的世纪,创造知识和应用知识的能力与效率将成为影响一个国家综合国力和国际竞争力的决定性因素。同时,２１世纪将是信息、知识和文化的时代,经济全球化、社会全球化的进程将明显加快,人类的未来和可持续发展的实现也将更加依赖于全球社会经济文化的融合及其发展。本文首先探讨了经济全球化的背景,进而分析了知识经济的特征。在此基础上探讨了经济全球化、知识化对全球可持续发展的影响。     

Constructing Projects of National Development in Latin America?

Abstract

This article analyzes technology-related development in Latin America from a heterodox perspective based in Institutionalist and Structuralist Economics. Since the 1970s, the lack of systematic national projects designed to institutionalize endogenous innovation capabilities in the region has constituted a critical structural impediment to development. Eschewing the creation of public goods, most nations in Latin America abandoned important incipient efforts to develop technological autonomy as undertaken during the state-led industrialization period. This article highlights poorly understood but relatively successful aspects of the import substitution industrialization (ISI) strategy on technological advancement in the state-led era. Recently, neoliberalism's monolithic grip has been loosened. Brazil has undergone somewhat of a paradigmatic shift while advancing toward the creation of a national innovation system (NIS), thereby offering important lessons for other Latin American nations. Mexico, in contrast, shows no indication of attaining autonomous technological capabilities. The attainment of such capabilities in highly industrialized countries, and fast developing Asian nations, partially resulted from the construction of a NIS. The creation of a NIS embodies an interactive and interdependent process: it entails the joint and combined participation of scientists and others involved in research and development (R&D) activities in (1) the public and private sectors and (2) universities. These elements combine with agents of the state empowered to finance and coordinate the construction and maintenance of the NIS. The construction of a NIS has induced “increasing returns” in production processes. As Furtado emphasized, supply-enhancing technological capacity must be met by inclusive demand-enhancing policies that embed the vast underlying population in the growth process.     

Role of home and host country innovation systems in r&d internationalisation: a patent citation analysis

This paper has three novelties. First, we argue that any given R&D facility’s capacity to exploit and/or augment technological competences is a function not just of its own resources, but the efficiency with which it can utilise complementary resources associated with the relevant local innovation system. Just as asset-augmenting activities require proximity to the economic units (and thus the innovation system) from which they seek to learn, asset-exploiting activities draw from the parent’s technological resources as well as from the other assets of the home location’s innovation system. Furthermore, we argue that most firms tend to undertake both asset exploiting and augmenting activities simultaneously. Second, we use patent citation data from the European Patent Office to quantify the relative asset augmenting vs. exploiting character of foreign-located R&D. Third, we do so for European MNEs located in the US, as well as US MNEs located in Europe. Our results indicate that both EU (US) affiliates in the US (EU) rely extensively on home region knowledge sources, although they appear to exploit the host country knowledge base as well.     

National appropriation of university innovations: The failure of ink jet technologies in sweden

In industrialized countries,innovations generated through academic research are considered inportant for the advancement of a nation's technological frontiers. However, nations often fail to appropriate such innovations. This paper discusses the failure to appropriate ink jet technologies in Sweden. Ink jet technologies, which are currently widely used in computer printers, consist mainly of two alternative technologies-continuous ink jet technologies and drop-on-demand technologies. Both these alternative technologies originated in the Swedish uniuersig structure. However, both innovations failed to be incorporated into the Swedish industrial structure and have been successfully commercialized by foreign companies. The reasons for such failure include, non-complementarity of university research with the existing industrial base; weaknesses in ihe industrial structure; and an absence of complementaly assets required for the appropriation of innouations. This paper analyzes the requirements for successful national appropriation of university innovations and policy implications for an industrialized country     

新疆对外贸易竞争力研究

以竞争力理论为基础,应用定性和定量相结合的方法,通过对新疆贸易现状的分析和国际、国内的比较,认为在经济全球化下如何竞争已成为世界各国（包括地区）政府、国际组织和理论学术界关注的焦点之一。从理论和实际的结合上研究在世界经济结构调整下的国际竞争力与提升新疆贸易竞争力问题,对于新疆深化改革、扩大开放,以发展为主体、结构调整为主线、体制创新和科技创新为动力,采取渐进式的发展模式提升地区的贸易竞争力,使新疆这一边疆地区与全国一同登上世界经济舞台,积极参与国际竞争,到21世纪中叶达到中等发达国家贸易水平,具有重要的现实意义。同时提出了新疆贸易竞争力提升的对策措施和政策建议。     

面向知识经济时代的国家创新体系

随着知识经济时代的来临，发达国家的国家创新系统研究已经从早期的强调技术创新转移到既重视技术创新、又关注知识在经济中的作用，即重视知识的生产、储存、转移、扩散和应用。本文介绍了我国面向知识经济时代的国家创新体系的结构、功能和关键概念。     

中小企业政策发展与中小企业成长的相关性研究——以浙江省为例

中小企业在国民经济发展中不仅发挥着增加就业、培养企业家、活跃经济、为大企业配套、增加市场竞争性的作用,科技型中小企业更是技术创新的活跃成分和主力。通过选择浙江省中小企业政策为研究对象,运用统计分析的方法,探讨了中小企业政策的发展及不同类型的政策与中小企业成长的相关性问题,并提出相应的对策。     

产业集群中知识溢出与区域竞争力提升研究

在知识经济时代,产业集群内知识溢出成为区域经济增长的主要内生变量,发挥着重要的作用,区域的竞争力也日益表现为对知识占有和利用之间的较量,研发创新、知识吸收与创新成为经济发展的内在动力源泉。本文分析了集群内知识溢出主要通过集群内企业间人员流动、集群内企业间观察模仿、集群内企业非正式交流及集群内企业衍生等途径来实现。探讨了集群内知识溢出和技术创新与区域竞争力的相互作用关系。提出了集群内知识溢出有利于集群企业的技术创新能力提升集群的知识积累水平,激活创新活力,增强区域的整体创新功能、有利于集群内企业降低创新成本与风险提升区域创新效率、有利于集群企业的人力资源的流动提升区域竞争力,从而形成集群区域独特的竞争优势。     

长江经济带发展战略对区域科学竞争力的提升效应——基于双重差分法的实证研究

在全球科技革命加速演进的背景下，长江经济带发展战略的实施对沿线省市科学竞争力提升具有重大意义。基于2009-2019年我国内地31个省市面板数据，构建科学竞争力评价指标体系，并利用熵权法计算各省市科学竞争力综合得分，通过使用双重差分法和中介效应模型实证检验长江经济带发展战略对区域科学竞争力的提升效应，最后对该战略的区域异质性及作用机制进行深入研究。结果表明：①长江经济带发展战略显著提升区域科学竞争力，稳健性检验支持该结论；②该战略实施虽然有助于提升长江经济带整体科学竞争力，但存在区域异质性，呈现为下游>中游>上游；③该战略通过提高要素集聚度、促进经济发展、加强政府公共服务提升沿线省市科学竞争力。基于实证结果，从提高政府公共服务水平、制定差异化发展计划、加大地方政府财政支出、精准布局科创载体、加快数据要素基础设施建设等方面提出建议。     

信息扩散、产业集聚与区域技术创新绩效——基于2005—2018年区域面板数据的动态分析

为了探索信息扩散、产业集聚与技术创新绩效间的动态影响关系,寻找影响地区经济发展及技术创新驱动的主要因素,使用2005—2018年我国区域面板数据,采用VAR模型、面板数据模型及状态空间模型,对信息扩散、产业集聚与技术创新绩效关系进行分析。研究发现：①产业集聚对技术创新绩效的边际影响力呈倒U形曲线,而信息扩散对技术创新绩效的边际影响力呈递增趋势,信息扩散对产业集聚的边际影响力呈线性增长态势,而技术创新绩效对产业集聚的边际影响力呈倒U形曲线;②不同地区信息扩散与产业集聚对技术创新绩效的影响效应依次为东部地区＞中部地区＞西部地区,且东部和中部地区的信息扩散对技术创新绩效的影响大于产业集聚的影响,西部地区的产业集聚对技术创新绩效的影响大于信息扩散的影响;③不同地区信息扩散与技术创新绩效对产业集聚的影响效应依次为东部地区＞中部地区＞西部地区,且东部地区的技术创新绩效对产业集聚的影响大于信息扩散的影响,中部和西部地区信息扩散对产业集聚的影响大于技术创新绩效的影响。     

新型工业化背景下中小企业发展战略研究

新型工业化是既符合国际发展潮流，又符合我国国情的现代工业化新模式。中小企业是国民经济的重要组成部分．在社会主义市场经济发展中起着不可替代的作用。走新型工业化道路，必须从战略的高度重视中小企业的发展，研究其发展战略．使中小企业在我国的经济发展和社会进步中做出更大的贡献。     

广东城市创新空间体系研究

在全球化背景与"知识经济"时代里,创新已经成为提升国家、地区、城市竞争力的重要因素,是经济发展的核心驱动力,是各国发展的首要战略选择。对广东省工业化阶段三个时期的城市创新体系动态演变进行了初步评价,并找出影响创新能力的主要因素。研究表明,在不同经济发展阶段,影响因素有所不同。城市经济实力、城市化水平、外商直接投资等是各个阶段下影响广东城市创新能力的共性因素;而人才教育水平则是准工业化和工业化初期创新能力的主要影响因素。     

The role of the technology barometer in assessing the performance of the national innovation system

Along with increasing significance of innovation in socio-economic development grows the need to utilize future-oriented knowledge in innovation policy-making. Foresight and road-map exercises are aimed at supporting planning and priority-setting of R&D and have become indispensable elements of policy-making. Besides technological development decision-makers need all-inclusive knowledge of future developments of society, economy and impacts of science and technology. When the worldwide competition is about the attractiveness of innovation systems, such knowledge is important for comparing the innovation performance of nations to other economies. Finland is among the countries improving her position in worldwide performance comparisons since the late 1990s and reached leading nations in early 2000s. This attainment raised national interest and critical debate of the reliability of the data basis and methodologies used in comparisons. In The Finnish Association of Graduate Engineers (TEK) this discussion led to a decision to develop an own comparative exercise together with VTT. In addition to performance analysis based on ex-post indicators the barometer includes the questionnaire of the views and visions of the future development by relevant national actors. The theoretical framework of the barometer is based on the evolution of economies from industrial development phase to sustainable knowledge society. The barometer has been undertaken in 2004, 2005 and 2007, and a wide interest and emerged discussion of barometer proves that a social interest and order exists for the barometer. The article presents the background, methodology and results of technology barometer, discusses its impacts on national discussion, and gives perspectives for the future development of barometer.