Toward an Analytical Framework for National Innovation System

This paper reports on the preliminary development of a conceptual framework for national innovation systems, with a special reference to the problems and difficulties currently faced by developing countries in their industrial developments, in the circumstances of economic globalization and liberalization. This is an effort aimed at elaborating an analytic instrument focusing central attention on endogenous capability building in relation to national technology policy issues. The first section of the paper presents an outline conceptualization of national innovation systems, emphasizing that learning, learning efficiency, and the institutional context of learning constitute a coherent core of the approach of a national innovation system. It is argued that the concept of these core elements is sensitive to the unique features of industrially underdeveloped countries in recognizing (1) the indispensability of building and restructuring institutions throughout the modernization process, and (2) the distinctive and complex role of government policy in compensating for inadequately developed market mechanisms, and in inducing institutional transformation. The second part of the paper highlights some essential aspects of the approach to research suggested by the concept of a national innovation system, through illustrating issues and methods confronted under the headings of: 1) distinguishing between development stages; 2) industrial structure and learning; 3) institutional set-up and learning; 4) the market mechanism, opening to the world, and learning; 5) economic reform, path-shifting and policy learning; and 6) institutional and technological analysis. It demonstrates that while the concept remains about national competitiveness and national specificity, the focus for analysis using this concept is on micro-level events. It is at lower levels that the delicate mechanisms of interactive technological, institutional, and policy learning work. The thrust of the discussion in the second section, although the issues and methods illustrated are by themselves more pertinent to countries in which certain institutions and technological capabilities have been established, points to the importance of carefully identifying critical issues before applying the analytical approach of a national innovation system.