Meso Trajectories in the National Innovation System and Their Regulation

The mesotrajectory is presented as a three-phase process of the development of mesopopulations: emergence (origination), diffusion (acceptance, assimilation and adaptation) and retention of a new rule (innovation). The central category of the NIS, i.e. knowledge, is considered from two positions: as a set of specific rules and as the most critical innovation resource. The proposed methodology also describes the three phases of mesostructure dividing each of them into two series-parallel sub-phases and incorporating them in the design of niches, technological and market ones. The methodology allows specifying the effect of the evolutionary selection and intermittent development of meso-units in the first two phases, as well as the mechanisms of changing the socio-technological regime in the third phase. The study set and analyse policy for creating motivation for innovative behaviour at different phases of the mesotrajectory. The actors' mesopopulation are represented as carriers of the properties of knowledge-rules-resources. The knowledge of the actor is taking into account not only as a rule but a factor breaking the mesotrajectory. Among other characteristics of mesotrajectory discontinuity, intermittent equilibrium is taken into consideration in the study. The problem of regulating trajectory continuity is analysed in the framework of public policy.