The Challenges of Globalisation: Strategic Choices for Innovation Policy

The vast literature of systems of innovation is rich in theoretical and empirical studies about the complexity and institutionally-embedded processes of interaction and learning. So far, however, this literature has not studied in a comprehensive manner the nature and types of strategic choices that public actors in systems of innovation are facing given the ever-changing social, economic and technological contexts. This chapter undertakes a first step designing an analytical model to address this fundamental issue. The specific point of departure is the set of challenges that the process of globalisation has been posing to systems of innovation in industrialised and developing countries, past and present. The next section approaches the general problem about strategic choices for systems of innovation and reviews succinctly the policy-related literature in the field, pointing at the missing elements and uncovered issues. After that, the chapter delves into the issue of uncertainty and selectivity, two core preliminary aspects for defining strategic choices. Last, the fifth section deals with systemic problems in the view of the globalisation context, and addresses the critical issue of designing a method to help public actors spelling out objectives and instruments unfolding their specific strategic choices for systems of innovation.