Publications
Journal Article
The Brazil, Russia, India China and South Africa (BRICS) group has emerged as a collection of large economies which are outside the traditional groups of industrialised “first world” economies and which have altered the global distribution of economic power. The basis of their emergence is a combination of their size and growth rates, and the fact that they lie outside the established centres...
This paper develops and applies a concept of modes of innovation to the issue of economic development and the integration of African economies. This concept, which is located in the systems of innovation approach to economic dynamics, is first developed in the context of the development of capitalism. It is then applied to the evolution of African systems of innovation over three periods...
This paper develops and applies a concept of modes of innovation to the issue of economic development and the integration of African economies. This concept, which is located in the systems of innovation approach to economic dynamics, is first developed in the context of the development of capitalism. It is then applied to the evolution of African systems of innovation over three periods...
In this paper I examine the possible modes of introducing a Systems of Innovation (SI) approach into economics curricula. I look at the various possible choices of coupling this approach with standard economic curricula and then explore the implications of these various choices. I link this argument with current heterodox debates on the relevance of the neoclassical text and the...
This paper explores possible reasons for the long and enduring dominance of neoclassical theory over the undergraduate microeconomics textbook. It proposes that those very attributes of neoclassical microeconomics that raise serious theoretical misgivings constitute the basis for the current hegemony of the standard undergraduate textbook. It further discusses the effects of the standard text...
IERI Working Papers
Economic and scientific discourse is often framed in a neutral language where women largely become invisible. However, the discourse remains male coded with its focus mainly on male coded production. Mainstreaming gender particularly in the analyses of innovation systems can improve the development of science technology and innovation policies. More significantly, a gender perspective shifts...
Globally about 2.5 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation and 1.1 billion practice open defecation. Being seen practicing open defecation can provoke the greatest form of embarrassment. In particular, open defecation symbolises an embedded form of marginalisation especially in remote rural villages where latrines are often restricted to village elites. That is, rural...
The main aim of this paper is to develop the concept of viability as a general theoretical framework for the assessment of systems of innovation, defined broadly, at three main levels of aggregation – the national, the sub-national and the supra-national.
This paper attempts a conceptual framework for innovative entrepreneurship (‘innovapreneurship’). Nowadays, the term entrepreneurship is used very broadly, so much so that its essence may become lost. Even people who get business from the state have jokingly been referred to as ‘tenderpreneurs’. However the original construct of an entrepreneur from the Schumpeterian perspective was that of a...
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 looks at the relationship between organised labour, the state and private enterprises within the context of the governance of the national system of innovation. In general, from the triple-helix model organised labour may be seen as the missing link, mostly due to its perceived and often actual adversarial relationship with private enterprise and with the state. The paper...
Many social and natural scientists would agree with the conclusion that humanity is at a point of self-inflicted crisis. Of special significance is how we frame the crisis and, relatedly, what we understand to be its root cause. Framing is an act of diagnosis which suggests possible remedies. This paper argues that the current framings of the crisis – though accurate – are insufficient. The...
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...
Micro financing is perceived to contribute towards poverty reduction by developing small enterprises. We examined the Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction (CFPR) programme implemented by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) between 2002 and 2007. We selected this case because it used a different approach of micro financing where assets were transferred rather than cash...
The research question we wish to investigate is the degree to which different countries with differing levels of NSI strength and weakness cope in mitigating some of the adverse impacts of the recession. In general during the recession confidence declines or what Keynes calls the „animal spirit‟. Creative destruction is heightened as firms destroyed need to find other ways of recreating their...
The innovation systems literature has provided a useful framework to analyse the linkages of firms and other organisations with both domestic and foreign actors. Although the concept of innovation systems was originally developed at the national level (Freeman, 1982; Nelson & Winter, 1982; Lundvall, 1985; Nelson, 1988, etc), the literature has expanded rapidly over the years. Since its...
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 is the first part of our three part comparative study of Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) in China and India. For this we employ the integrative framework developed by Mian (1997) and its adaptation to analyzing the performance of TBI, which uses three sets of variables for analysis: management and operational policies, services, and performance outcomes of TBI. The determinants we...
In this paper an attempt will be made to identify what has been explicitly recognised as central and peripheral within the systems of innovation concept; the inclusion or exclusion of the factors that are important in understanding the political economy of innovation systems; the themes, issues and range of actors and spaces that must be included in NSI types of appreciative theory or...
Whenever people think of FDI flows, the traditional assumption is that the investment flows from MNCs in the developed economies to either other developed economies and/or to the developing world. Now, a new trend has emerged owing to the process of globalisation. That is, FDI from the emerging and developing economies such as China, India, South Africa and Brazil is flowing to both developed...
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 intellectual assets underpinning the modern knowledge economy are not normally associated with activities in the primary sector. This raises the question whether resourcebased developing countries are eternally relegated to the Also-Runs in global competition or at least whether they need to disassociate themselves from their economic mainstay in order for catch-up to materialise. The...
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...
This paper uses the concepts of means of innovation and modes of innovation to introduce an alternative approach to the understanding of the evolution of the South African system of innovation. Modes of innovation are defined in terms of ownership and control patterns of the means of innovation, as well as the role played by human capital. The relationship between ideology and modes of...
The problem of rural poverty, unemployment, lack of incomes, and marginalization has become an important area of policy in practice in South Africa. More specifically, employment is seen as an important policy instrument through which the marginalized rural inhabitants can enter and participate in the broader national economy. It is not surprising, therefore, that this area of policy concern...
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...
This paper is a contribution to the discussion about globalisation, democracy and development. It proposes revisiting the current multilateral architecture for economic growth and development whilst simultaneously encouraging greater coherence, cooperation and coordination amongst the countries of Southern Africa. Competing conceptual definitions, contextual histories and performance data...
The paper illustrates the role of political and social dynamics upon technological change. Examining dynamics transforming excavation practices on South Africa’s goldmines, it describes how a technology that opened up a range of social and economic opportunities became a constraint on those opportunities. This technology’s development and diffusion thereby established a critical precedent in...
Selected Books, Chapters and Reports
This chapter applies a “modes of innovation” approach to the understanding of the evolution of two national systems of innovation in Africa...
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This paper looks at the conditions which will determine the engagement of the four IORA member countries in sub-Saharan Africa - Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa – with the other economies in the association. These four countries are not viewed in isolation from other African economies, given the increasing importance of the regional economic agreements which link them to the rest...
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 volume looks at the relationship between small and medium enterprises and national systems of innovation across the BRICS countries. It brings to fore crucial issues in the evolution and future trends of industrial or innovation policies for small...
This book analyses the role of innovation financing in the BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — through a national systems of innovation approach, and captures the institutional and policy dynamics that have determined their location in the new ordering of the global political economy...