The Global Dimension of Innovation Systems: Linking Innovation Systems and Global Value Chains

Abstract

We study the international dimension of Innovation System. It is crucial to understand how different patterns of GVC governance influence learning and innovation of firms. This implies addressing two main groups of research questions:• How does the learning mechanism operate in different chains? In which chains are lead firms promoting learning through increased pressure? In which ones are they supporting the innovation process through deliberate knowledge transfer and direct involvement in the learning and innovation process? In which type of chains is learning instead resulting from unintended knowledge spillovers?• What is the role of the innovation systems, at national, regional or local level, in this GVC-driven learning and innovation process? How can innovation systems foster (hinder) the efforts of developing countries’ firms to gain a profitable entry into, and interaction within GVCs?The chapter addresses these questions, being organised as follows. Next section briefly discusses the appropriateness of the concept of IS, developed having in mind advanced industrial countries, for LDCs, and reviews the literature adapting/introducing new concepts. Section 3 reviews the main issues analysed in the GVC literature, with special reference to the different patterns of governance and introduces a detailed discussion of the different mechanisms of learning prevailing in the various types of chains. Then Section 4 explicitly links the literature on GVCs and their governance with the notion of IS. Section 5 concludes.

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