The politics of partial success: fostering innovation in innovation policy in an era of heightened public scrutiny

Abstract

Policymakers have adapted to the challenge of rapid, innovation-based competition by using ‘Schumpeterian development agencies’ (SDAs) to foster continuous, radical experimentation. These peripheral agencies developed new policy instruments and business models that would transform their national economies when scaled by mainstream actors. In this article, we argue that this model is less likely to succeed in an increasingly politicized environment. The growing salience of innovation has instead led to the ‘politics of partial success’, sharpening the trade-offs between policy experimentation and implementation. We develop these arguments by first reviewing the history of two successful SDAs, the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development and the Israeli Office of the Chief Scientist, and then more deeply examining three newly established innovation agencies, Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovative Systems (VINNOVA), and Ireland’s Policy Advisory Board for Enterprise and Science (Forfás).

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