Innovation and Institutions: A Multidisciplinary Review of the Study of Innovation Systems

by Steven Casper, Frans van Waarden

Overview

Innovation and Institutions is an extensive elaboration on the make up of systems of innovation. It examines why some countries are more innovative than others, why national styles of innovation differ, and goes on to explore why some countries make radical innovations but fail to successfully market them, whilst others making incremental innovations have more commercial success.

The book draws on a variety of different literatures and perspectives to illustrate the organizational and institutional dimensions of national innovation systems. Literatures discussed include the economics of innovation, organizational sociology, administrative science, institutional economics, organizational learning, network analysis, business systems, economic governance and regulation.

This truly interdisciplinary book will be invaluable to academics and researchers focussing on innovation in a wide range of fields. It will also strongly appeal to practitioners and policymakers concerned with innovation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781843762119
Publisher:	Edward Elgar Publishing
Publication date:	10/26/2005
Series:	New Horizons in the Economics of Innovation series
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Edited by Steven Casper, Keck Graduate Institute, Claremont, California, US and the late Frans van Waarden, formerly Utrecht University, the Netherlands

Table of Contents

Contents: Part I: Introduction 1. Introduction: Scanning Literature on Institutions, Organizations and Innovation 2. Problems of Measuring Innovative Performance 3. National Innovation Systems Part II: Inside the Black Box: Organizations 4. Organizations and Innovation: Contributions from Organizational Sociology and Administrative Science 5. Innovation, Organizational Learning and Institutional Economics 6. Innovation Strategies, Interactive Learning and Innovation Networks Part III: The Broader Environment: Institutions 7. Varieties of Capitalism: Comparative Institutional Approaches to Economic Organization and Innovation 8. A Prototype Institution: Law, Regulation and Innovation Part IV: Conclusion 9. Conclusion: Questions for Further Research Index

Editorial Reviews

'The idea behind this book is that institutions are important when it comes to explaining the specialisation and performance of national innovation systems. The idea is not new. But largely the institution-concept has remained somewhat vague and unspecified in the literature. This book is valuable since it succeeds in opening up the black box of institutions and organisations. The distinction between institutions at different levels and how they link up and form a systemic whole is especially original and fruitful. The interdisciplinary team behind the book has also produced a welcome antidote to the current tendency to benchmark innovation systems exclusively on the basis of quantitative indicators. The analysis demonstrates that some national systems do better in some specific areas because of being supported by institutions that are sometimes deeply rooted in history and culture. This is why imitating "best-practice" across countries is not a straight forward thing to do.'

Bengt-Ake Lundvall