Implications of a complexity perspective to innovation for public and private interventions

An increased emphasis on the role of innovation as a primary driver of economic growth in contemporary knowledge-based economies has put the politics of innovation processes on the front burner. But just what exactly one thinks should be done depends crucially on the theory of innovation that is adopted. In this contribution, we explore how a view of innovation inspired by complexity theory can help us to understand whether we need coordinated interventions to support innovation and, if so, to understand how these can be designed. Complexity theory is a developing area of research characterized by a wide and increasing range of interdisciplinary applications. As a result, the meaning and implications of this approach even within the relatively narrow field of innovation studies are still being negotiated, and different, sometimes conflict­ ing, positions coexist. Therefore, in the next section, we describe what we mean by a complexity perspective to innovation, contrasting our approach and its policy implications both with the traditional ‘linear’ model of innovation and with more recent and broader ‘systemic’ approaches. Then, having broadly out­ lined the theoretical framework on which the analysis is based, we explore its implications for coordinated interventions in support of innovation, with refer­ ence to two case studies. Finally, we draw some concluding remarks for policy design.