INNOVATION THEORY, SYSTEMS AND INDICATORS

Abstract
This paper examines the contending views on the concept of capabilities, counterpoising the neoclassical definition of human capital, and the neoliberal appropriation of this concept, to the broader human capabilities conceptualisation of the role of people in economic systems. This argument is developed within the framework of the systems of innovation approach to economic...

This paper traces the development of thought on the economics of innovation from perspective of discourse formations in order to assess the placement of the system of innovation approach in economic theory. In order to do this, a genealogical approach is used in order to chart the development of the study of innovation within an evolutionary perspective, in relation to the evolution of liberal...

In many extant analyses of the impact of non-reciprocal system of trade preferences it is typical to focus on the details of market access value of tariff concessions as explanation for why export of beneficiaries’ products may or may not respond to incentives. Very often the role that supply-related factors can and do play in the process is relegated to the background. This paper argues that...

This paper is a contribution to the discussion on Innovation for Development. It is argued that innovation strategies in developing countries are the result of competing policy and contextual factors. In exploring this theme, it suggests that innovation strategies which are shaped by domestic market and policy realities are more robust and contribute towards improving the country-level...

Despite attempts to induce regional competitiveness in industrial manufactures, poor productivity performances continue to plague the ability of African entrepreneurs to compete successfully in international markets. While many plausible explanations can be put forward to explain this failing, we argue in this paper that an analysis of the social and institutional context within which these...

The ability to absorb and use effectively FDI flows by countries to enhance their national productive systems is directly related to the degree of functioning of an economy’s national innovation system. We develop a heuristic NSI-FDI framework that proposed three types of NSIs (well functioning/strong, relatively well functioning, and weak) in relation with three types of corresponding FDI...

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This volume analyses the co-evolution of inequality and NSI across the BRICS economies. It reveals the multi-dimensional character of inequality, in going beyond its income aspect to include assets, access to basic services, infrastructure, knowledge, race, gender,...

‘This book brings together original contributions from world leading experts on innovation indicators and is unique in several respects. First, the focus is upon innovation in terms of commercialized products and processes and not on secondary indicators of research or patenting. Second, it combines academic perspectives with user perspectives from industry and international organizations....

In recent years, the need to address social and environmental challenges has grown in urgency. Climate change, global health, food security and many other global challenges cross national borders and affect a wide range of actors. Yet, in most cases, single governments cannot provide effective solutions. Global challenges call for co-operation on a global scale to build capacity in...

This five volume set examines various aspects of the BRICS economies from a national system of innovation perspective. Original and detailed data together with expert analyses by contributing authors on wide-ranging issues make this an invaluable resource for researchers and scholars in economics,...

Innovation drives long-term economic growth. It has a crucial role to play as global economies recover from the current financial crisis. This book examines the role of innovation in developing countries, with a focus on Africa. It investigates innovation systems and their application; the key role of knowledge in innovation for development; and the importance of comparable country studies and...

Innovation provides a path to sustainable growth but a strategy for innovation in a global economy is no longer national. Countries must attract people and investment from abroad and participate in world markets and institutions. This book starts with the language and system framework used to discuss innovation, and the statistical indicators needed to describe the activity. It then looks at...

There is an extensive historiography of Africa’s mineral resource endowment, but it has largely neglected the innovative capacity resulting from those resources. This article reduces that gap through an analysis of the system of innovation that developed in Southern Africa around the Kimberley diamond deposits. After a brief review of the systems of innovation concept, attention turns to...

The third mission encompasses all activities of universities beyond their first and second missions, education and research. An analysis of various countries with different economic, political and geographic features reveals an increased demand for such activities in particular with regard to technology transfer, but also as to the support of the civil society in more general terms. Therefore...

In this book, Mario Scerri provides the reader with a novel and sweeping rendition of South Africa's economic history from the early part of the twentieth century to the present. He applies a broad innovation systems approach to this history spanning the period from 1916, which saw the drafting of South Africa's first Science and Technology plan to the first fourteen years of the post-...

South Africa remains one of the world's largest producers of gold, despite the majority of its deposits being several kilometres below the surface. In the late 1960s the depth of the gold deposits motivated the Chamber of Mines Research Organisation (COMRO), the industry's cooperative research institute, to undertake research and development of alternative technologies to extract the gold-...

The intensified pace of scientific advancements and technological progress reflected in newspaper headlines around the world today is related to the unprecedented and ever-accelerating speed of knowledge creation, accumulation and depreciation.

This book emerged from the seminar on the Measurement of Innovation Activities in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)and non-OECD countries held in South Africa in 2001. The motivation for that forum was the recognised need to address a new exciting phenomenon in the area of economic policy formulation.

When Muchie and Lundvall initiated the international conference ‘African Systems of Innovation and Competence Building’ March 2001 in Aalborg the intention was to reexamine the problems of African development by mobilising the scholarship on innovation systems. The major objective was to respond to academic and analytical questions: what lessons could be drawn from applying the innovation...

Building a community of innovation scholars will promote locally relevant research and policy, say Bitrina Diyamett and Erika Kraemer-Mbula.

Africa has made remarkable progress in building capacity in natural and engineering sciences over the past decade. The endorsement of...

Concluding remarks:

• South Africa’s economy is largely driven by cities
• Towns and cities serve as concentrations of economic activity within the national spatial economies
• Economies of scale
• Specialised business services
• Infrastructure
• 71% of population live in cities and towns, particularly along the coast, Gauteng, and Limpopo and...

Goods-producing sectors (i.e. Agriculture, forestry & fishing, Mining, Manufacturing) accounted for 25.5% of overall economic activity (GDP) in 2011, compared to 32% in 2002.

World Crises of the 3rd Millennium

• Social inclusion sustains dynamic domestic market
• de-mystifying the need to dissociate andantagonize economic and social policies
• Robust banking system not exposed to problematic assets
• Investment growing above consumption Several investment opportunities:
  Oil & Gas, Energy, Infrastructure, PAC...

• Concurrent crisis's all emanate from the current mode of production and consumption, waste, and environmental degradation
• Accelerated distribution through neo-liberal globalisation
• Hegemonic World System, Unilateralism & State violence

The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the role that benchmarking can play in rural and agricultural innovations. Although generally known as ‗traditional sectors‘, rural activities are far from static but rather driven by old and new challenges pleading for innovative responses. Despite the broad range of insights from the burgeoning literature on innovation systems during the last decade...

• For meaningful adaptation to and mitigation of climate change,
  • Information and knowledge - essential
• If rural households, communities have access to information,
  • it will enhance their awareness; adaptation and mitigation capacity
• How do we enhance climate change awareness?
• There are various ways in which...

• Overview insights of biofuels
• Problem statement
• Objectives of the study
• Research Hypothesis
• Research methodology
• Findings and discussion
• Recommendations and conclusion

There were a number of options in the naming of this institute whose anniversary wen have gathered here today to celebrate. This was due to the nature of our object of analysis, innovation, where a number of disciplines intersect and where, therefore, a strong degree of multi-disciplinarity is called for.

Let me start by congratulating the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation on its fifth anniversary, an important milestone if one considers that, in business terms, passing the three and a half year mark mean that you have made it beyond start-up. This is no mean feat.

The contribution of innovation to social and economic progress of developing countries is widely recognised. Governments and other actors are actively seeking to increase the firms' ability to deliver successful innovation to multiple sectors, particularly those related to emerging technologies - such as ICTs.

• National System of Innovation
  – Policy – Strategy – Plan - Agency
• Higher Education Landscape
  - Reform & Qualifications
• Sustainable Development
• Challenges

Local Economic Development is important for:

• Growth in Productivity and Competitiveness
• Social Cohesion
• Good governance a.k.a. Accountability

Science Parks contribute to:

• Capacity mobilisation
• Capability formation
• Competency creation

National Systems of Innovation provide the conceptual framework to:

The Witwatersrand Basin is an ancient inland sea around 3 billion years old and roughly 350km long by 150km wide

Most of the basin is covered by younger rocks of considerable depth, but tectonics exposed the northern edge

On that edge, in a region know as the Central Rand mining of the Witwatersrand Basin began

• Introduction
• Evolutionary Political Economy
  • Schools of Economic Thought & Innovation
  • Critique of Neo-classical Economics
  • Evolutionary Political Economy
• National Systems of Innovation
  • History
  • Current divergent paths
• Policy Matters
  • Explicit
  • Implicit
• Concluding...