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Innovation policy : Rationales, lessons and challenges

Fagerberg, Jan LU (2018) p.93-108
Abstract

Innovation policy has emerged as a new field of economic policy during the last few decades. This paper explores the rationales for national innovation policies, as laid out in the existing literature on the subject, and considers what the lessons and challenges for theory and practice in this area are. Innovation policy attempts to influence innovation activity, often with the purpose of increasing economic growth. But it can also have more specific aims such as preventing unwarranted climate change, improving national health, and so on. The increasing attention given to innovation policy at the national level from the 1990s onwards went hand in hand with the development of a new, systemic understanding of innovation, which in a better... (More)

Innovation policy has emerged as a new field of economic policy during the last few decades. This paper explores the rationales for national innovation policies, as laid out in the existing literature on the subject, and considers what the lessons and challenges for theory and practice in this area are. Innovation policy attempts to influence innovation activity, often with the purpose of increasing economic growth. But it can also have more specific aims such as preventing unwarranted climate change, improving national health, and so on. The increasing attention given to innovation policy at the national level from the 1990s onwards went hand in hand with the development of a new, systemic understanding of innovation, which in a better way than before accounted for the 'stylised facts' of innovation activity as identified by empirical work. The system approach, as the paper shows, came to have a significant influence on the subsequent policy discourse. Drawing on recent advances in innovation-systems theory, a synthetic framework for the analysis of innovation policy is developed and used to highlight issues of particular relevance for the conduct of innovation policy and future scholarly work in this area.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Grand challenges, Innovation, Innovation policy, National innovation systems
host publication
Innovation, Economic Development and Policy : Selected Essays - Selected Essays
article number
2
pages
16 pages
publisher
Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN
9781788110259
9781788110266
DOI
10.4337/9781788110266.00010
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c49b30c3-8ae8-40e4-9336-fe23ac97a4a6
date added to LUP
2019-12-12 11:57:07
date last changed
2022-02-01 02:32:09
@inbook{c49b30c3-8ae8-40e4-9336-fe23ac97a4a6,
  abstract     = {{<p>Innovation policy has emerged as a new field of economic policy during the last few decades. This paper explores the rationales for national innovation policies, as laid out in the existing literature on the subject, and considers what the lessons and challenges for theory and practice in this area are. Innovation policy attempts to influence innovation activity, often with the purpose of increasing economic growth. But it can also have more specific aims such as preventing unwarranted climate change, improving national health, and so on. The increasing attention given to innovation policy at the national level from the 1990s onwards went hand in hand with the development of a new, systemic understanding of innovation, which in a better way than before accounted for the 'stylised facts' of innovation activity as identified by empirical work. The system approach, as the paper shows, came to have a significant influence on the subsequent policy discourse. Drawing on recent advances in innovation-systems theory, a synthetic framework for the analysis of innovation policy is developed and used to highlight issues of particular relevance for the conduct of innovation policy and future scholarly work in this area.</p>}},
  author       = {{Fagerberg, Jan}},
  booktitle    = {{Innovation, Economic Development and Policy : Selected Essays}},
  isbn         = {{9781788110259}},
  keywords     = {{Grand challenges; Innovation; Innovation policy; National innovation systems}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{93--108}},
  publisher    = {{Edward Elgar Publishing}},
  title        = {{Innovation policy : Rationales, lessons and challenges}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781788110266.00010}},
  doi          = {{10.4337/9781788110266.00010}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}