National systems of production, innovation, and competence building

Abstract

Introduction What follows is a shortened, and slightly revised, version of a paper published in Research Policy (Lundvall et al ., 2002). In this introduction, We provide a few brief reflections on the innovation system concept in the light of economic geography. We make no attempt to give full justice to the literature on economic geography that predates the literature on innovation systems, however. While the idea of a national system of innovation (NSI) attempts to explain and understand innovation in economic terms, the concept may also be seen as a combination of different elements – some of which emanate from economic geography and from the development literature. Perroux (1969) and Brookfield (1975), for instance, are among the common references. The overlap of ideas also has to do with timing. The NSI idea was shaped in the first half of the 1980s, and this was also a period of renewal of Marshallian economic geography related to regional studies that referred to industrial districts and clusters (Scott 2000: 29). It is therefore not so surprising that currently the most advanced and frequent “users” of the concept of NSIs are to be found among economic geographers rather than among economists. This can be documented, for instance, by using the search machine, Google Scholar. Another factor is that economic geographers, for historical and epistemological reasons, are much less inhibited in their use of heterodox ideas emanating from bordering disciplines.

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