Innovative systems

Innovation systems is a concept that is putting pressure on enterprises, institutions and people to share and exchange their technology and information between them, in order to make an innovative process. Innovative process is a correlation of different factors that are turning an idea into a process, product or a service on the market. Innovation systems have been divided into :

• National innovation systems
• Regional innovation systems
• Technological innovation systems
• Sectoral innovation systems

National innovation system

National innovation system (NIS) is as defined by S.Metcalfe in 1995 as ”… that set of distinct institutions which jointly and individually contribute to the development and diffusion of new technologies and which provides the framework within which governments form and implement policies to influence the innovation process. As such it is a system of interconnected institutions to create, store and transfer the knowledge, skills and artefacts which define new technologies.”

Effective and efficient operation of NIS depends on a few factors:

• Political Factor – consist of legal and political solutions
• Economical Factor- The influence of level of competitiveness or interest in cooperation by different companies
• Social Factor- The historical past that have an influence on innovations ( Traditions, education system)
• Technological factor- The development of the R&D sector, availability of technological knowledge
• International factor- Shapes a relation of a innovative system with other systems and international cooperation of R&D.

There are several institutions that are responsible for supporting development and innovativity of NIS like:

• Organizations that are responsible for innovation policy – These organizations are responsible for developing and promoting innovation policy (training centres, information centres and innovation support centres).
• Institutions involved In support and expansion of science and technology, they are the ones that are taking care of the right development of scientific and technical knowledge of the innovations (scientific and research institutes, universities)
• Entities that are included in the industry and services are implementing innovative solutions

Regional Innovation System

Regional Innovation System (RIS) is a gathering of events, entities and interactions between various institutions that are affecting processes in the region. It is leading to further increase in absorption and diffusion of innovation in the region.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) focuses on regional by publishing regular reports (for example territorial reviews) related issues and by supporting the best practices exchanges .By which they can assess the reviews for the regional innovation system and the make appropriate policies for the regions needs and strategic use of the regions resources of national and regional systems.

Technological innovation system

Technological innovation system could be defined as a “dynamic network of agents interacting in a specific economic or industrial area background involved in the generation and usage of technology. The components that a technological system consists of are called structures, they are relatively stable and are representing the rather static side of the system.

There are three basic categories:

• Actors - Actors involve organizations contributing to a technology. It is that actors of a Technological Innovation System by making choices, actually generate and utilize technologies. The potential variety of relevant actors is enormous, from private to public actors. The development of a Technological Innovation System will depend on correlations between actors and other entities that have influence on innovations like government.
• Institutions - Institutional structures are very important in the innovation system, the two types of institutions; the formal institution being the rules that are enforced by authority (laws and policy) and informal institutions being that are more organically shaped by the influence of the actors.
• Technological factors - In the technological structures we can see artefacts, the infrastructures which integrate them, and costs, safety, reliability. By reviewing these features we can understand the feedback from the difference between technological change and institutional change. Unfortunately the importance of technological features has often been neglected by the scholars.

Sectoral Innovation system

The Sectoral system of innovation and production became a new growing area of research in economics, It considers a wide range of factors that are crucial to innovations and pays centralized attention to examine innovation as a result of R&D firms and investments in products and production. It assesses the actors such as competitors, suppliers, users, universities etc. and what type of a institutions (standards, norms, regulations).
It has a really dynamic and fast-paced approach to innovation and indicates that although the actors and factors are similar to various systems the are different to each other. Not long ago it was thought that sectoral system was concerned to be in developed countries but nowadays this type of system is spreading more to different countries, because as we can see the innovation and diffusion has became more popular In developing countries as well.

References

• Franco Malerba, Sunil Mani. (2009). Sectoral Systems of Innovation and Production in Developing Countries [page 3-12]
• Joanna Prystrom. (2011). National Innovation System as a factor of economic development
• BT Asheim, A Isaksen. (2002). Regional Innovation Systems: The Integration of Local and Global Knowledge ,The Journal of Technology Transfer volume
• C.Baden-Fuller, S.Haefliger. (2013). Business Models and Technological Innovation
• F Malerba, S Mani. (2009). Sectoral Systems of Innovation and Production in Developing Countries, Edward Elgar Publishing
• S.Metcalfe. (2007). Perspectives on innovation, Cambridge University Press 2007

Author: Szymon Kotula