Building innovation systems: an introduction to the special section

The innovation systems approach is almost a quarter of a century old, if we start counting from Chris Freeman’s seminal book on the Japanese national innovation system (NSI) (Freeman, 1987). With the publication of the reader edited by Dosi et al. (1988), incorporating the chapters by Freeman, Lundvall, and Nelson, the approach gained theoretical ground even if two slightly different perspectives competed. The one, epitomized by Lundvall (1992), suggested that innovation systems included all organizations and institutions (particularly interactions and norms) that contribute in one way or the other to innovation. This perspective is based on the OECD Oslo Manual, in which innovation is defined as any improvement on process or product. Nelson (1993) suggested instead that organizations that conduct R&D and institutions such as science, technology and innovation policy that support R&D form the core of the innovation system. The basic idea in both approaches is the same: OECD countries innovate in a different way. Their innovation organizations and policies are different. Yet innovation occurs in all of them. After 1990, the literature on national innovation systems increased exponentially, and the concept was adopted in several countries, where innovation policies were seen under a new, systemic light. A few years later, the innovation system approach incorporated a regional perspective. The names of Cooke (1994) and Howells (1999) must be linked to this amplification toward regional systems of innovation (RSI). Again, the basic idea is simple and seminal: in each country, innovation is concentrated in a few regional centres. However, the extension brought new debates. Is the regional perspective to be privileged over the national one? Some authors suggested it was the case (de la Mothe and Paquet, 1998); others suggested the two perspectives were complementary (Niosi and Bellon, 1994; Howells, 1999). Yet, complexity increased because most