Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the way in which the concept of National Innovation Systems (NSI) has been taken up in different countries. The NSI approach has been proposed both as a tool for analysis and as a framework for policy intervention. In the latter connection, NSI has been proposed as a model for developing as well as less developed economies. In this process, particular framings of NSI have been promoted. A further translation has arisen as policy-makers in particular nations have selectively implemented the generic NSI model according to their understanding or framings of the world. Drawing upon studies of the implementation of innovation policies in Korea, Thailand, and Colombia we note how the NSI approach has been taken up across different regions of the world in part as a result of the efforts of transnational organizations. This has encouraged particular policy framings that tacitly emphasise innovation rather than competitiveness as the key to economic development and which, with their focus on the exploitation of public sector research tend towards 'linear' science-driven policy strategy to promote innovation. Alternative approaches might take as their starting points particular industrial capabilities and needs and the particular dynamics of innovation arising.