The Handbook of Global Science, Technology, and Innovation

Daniele Archibugi, Andrea Filippetti

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781118739051
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Trade & Tariffs
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The Handbook of Global Science, Technology, and Innovation

This unique Handbook provides an overview of the globalization of science, technology, and innovation, including global trends in the way knowledge is produced and distributed, the development of institutions, and global policy. It shows how technological change and innovation are shaped by the role of emerging countries in the generation of science and technological knowledge, and transnational corporations, and how reforms in intellectual property rights and world trade have been affected by the increasingly international flows of knowledge, technology, and innovation.

The book provides an in-depth assessment of the themes and direction of science, technology, innovation, and public policy in an increasingly globalized world. With contributions from an international team of leading scholars, this cutting-edge reference work introduces readers to current debates about the role of science and technology in global society and the policy responses that shape its development.

Comprising 28 specially commissioned chapters, the Handbook addresses major trends in global policy, including a significant shift toward private scientific research, the change in the distribution of science and technical knowledge, and a heightened awareness among policymakers of the economic and technological impact of scientific activity. Accessibly written, it provides an invaluable one-stop reference for students, social researchers, scientists, and policymakers alike.

Part I
Global Trends

Chapter 1
The Convergence Paradox: The Global Evolution of National Innovation Systems

Fulvio Castellacci and Jose Miguel Natera

Introduction

The investigation of the reasons behind cross-country differences in the creation and international diffusion of advanced knowledge constitutes, in a nutshell, the main interest of the national innovation systems (NIS) approach (Lundvall 1992; Nelson 1993; Edquist 1997). Studies in this tradition have become increasingly popular in the last two decades, and have greatly enriched our understanding of the functioning and evolution of nations’ capabilities and competencies. In addition to the great variety of theoretical insights that the systemic perspective has made it possible to achieve, several empirically oriented studies have also tried to operationalize the approach by measuring different aspects of the process of knowledge creation and dissemination in a large sample of countries, and by investigating the extent of cross-country differences (Archibugi and Coco 2004).

Several empirical studies in this tradition are rooted in the traditional literature on technology and convergence (Abramovitz 1986; Verspagen 1991; Fagerberg 1994). Following a technology-gap Schumpeterian approach, applied econometric studies have focused on a few key variables that explain cross-country differences in the innovation ability of countries as well as their different capabilities to imitate foreign advanced knowledge, and analyzed the empirical relationship between innovation and imitation factors and cross-country differences in GDP per capita growth (Fagerberg and Verspagen 2002; Fagerberg, Srholec, and Knell 2007; Castellacci 2008; Castellacci and Archibugi 2008).

Most of this empirical research, however, has so far focused on the cross-country comparative aspect (“why growth rates differ”) and mostly neglected the time series dimension and the analysis of the dynamics of the technological catch-up and economic growth process over time. Further, an exceptional amount of research has been devoted to the study of the determinants of GDP and income per capita growth. By contrast, only a limited number of studies have empirically investigated the dynamics of innovative capability and absorptive capacity over time and the main factors that may explain their long-run evolution (Castellacci 2011; Filippetti and Peyrache 2011; Castellacci and Natera 2013). Thirdly, applied research in this field has so far provided a rather stylized view and highly simplified operationalization of the multidimensional concept of innovation systems, typically focusing on a few key variables (e.g., R&D, patents, human capital) and neglecting several other potentially relevant factors. In short, the existing literature provides only limited insights on the global evolution of national systems of innovation and the mechanisms that may explain their evolution and growth over time. This is a crucial task for future research in this field, and the present chapter intends to take a step in this direction.

Motivated by this background, this chapter presents an empirical analysis of the global evolution of national innovation systems. The objective is to carry out a general and comprehensive study aimed at describing the cross-country distribution of a large number of technological, economic, and social factors that broadly contribute to define national systems of innovation, and how these factors have evolved during the period 1980–2008. The work focuses on six main dimensions characterizing NIS, three of which are related to the techno-economic domain (innovation and technological capabilities, openness, and infrastructures), while the other three define countries’ socio-institutional system (education, political institutions, and social cohesion). We adopt a large number of statistical indicators to measure these six conceptual dimensions. These indicators are from the CANA database, a newly released dataset that provides a rich set of information on a large number of countries worldwide for the last three-decade period, and enables a dynamic cross-country analysis of national systems, growth, and development (Castellacci and Natera 2011).

The results of our empirical analysis, in short, point out a contrasting pattern that we call the convergence paradox. On the one hand, the three dimensions defining the socio-institutional system – basi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: Editors’ Introduction: Science, Technology, and Innovation Go Global
• Part I: Global Trends
• Part II: The Globalization of Technology and Innovation
• Part III: Spaces and Flows of Knowledge
• Part IV: Global Institutions and Intellectual Property Rights
• Part V: The Global Governance of Science and Technology
• Index
• End User License Agreement