Discussing innovation and development: Converging points between the Latin American school and the Innovation Systems perspective?

Since it was formulated in the 1980s, the Systems of Innovation approach has been increasingly used in different parts of world to analyze processes of acquisition, use and diffusion of innovations and to guide policy recommendations. In Latin America the structuralism tradition in discussing development developed since the 1950s under the influence of the Economic Commission of Latin America and Caribbean has also highlighted the importance of technical change in systemic terms.The paper aims at (1) identifying and discussing common aspects, as well as main differences between both approaches; and (2) exploring the advantages of linking these approaches particularly, but not exclusively, in the case of development. The importance of examining convergences between these frameworks is three fold. First, it contributes to a deeper reflection on the use of the concept of innovation systems in understanding and orienting the processes of innovation and capacity building in less developed countries. Second, we argue that both approaches can benefit a lot from incorporating contributions from each other. Finally, this effort of discussing conceptual coherence may even provide ground to identify convergences when comparing analytical and normative frameworks to be used in national systems of innovation and in development studies not only in the Americas but also in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Europe.