National Institutions and the Globalized Political Economy of Technological Change: An Introduction

In the last three decades research across the social sciences has made great advances in the political economy of technological change. Nonetheless, many of these insights are solely tied to national, sometimes regional, explanations of industrial R&D and innovation rates. Meanwhile, the impacts of the international system, and of the actions of individual countries, on technological changes across many countries, are increasingly more pronounced. It is therefore imperative that we expand our theoretical conceptualizations. For these reasons we have gathered, in this special issue, economists, political scientists, geographers, and sociologists to explore in a comparative way what we view as some of the critical areas for research at two different level of analysis—business and nations. This introduction will outline their major research themes and provide a brief history of the debate.