Elsevier

Research Policy

Volume 31, Issue 2, February 2002, Pages 233-245
Research Policy

Innovation systems: analytical and methodological issues

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0048-7333(01)00138-XGet rights and content

Abstract

Innovation systems can be defined in a variety of ways: they can be national, regional, sectoral, or technological. They all involve the creation, diffusion, and use of knowledge. Systems consist of components, relationships among these, and their characteristics or attributes.

The focus of this paper is on the analytical and methodological issues arising from various system concepts. There are three issues that stand out as problematic. First, what is the appropriate level of analysis for the purpose at hand? It matters, for example, whether we are interested in a certain technology, product, set of related products, a competence bloc, a particular cluster of activities or firms, or the science and technology base generally—and for what geographic area, as well as for what time period. The choice of components and system boundaries depends on this, as does the type of interaction among components to be analyzed. The attributes or features of the system components that come into focus also depend on the choice of level of analysis.

The second and closely related issue is how to determine the population, i.e. delineate the system and identify the actors and/or components. What are the key relationships that need to be captured so that the important interaction takes place within the system rather than outside?

The third issue is how to measure the performance of the system. What is to be measured, and how can performance be measured at the system level rather than at component level?

Introduction

The systems approach to the analysis of economic and technological change is not new. Several systems approaches have been suggested in the literature. A system may be defined as “a set or arrangement of things so related or connected as to form a unity or organic whole” (Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary). Given that different systems serve different purposes, it is not surprising that there exists a variety of systems concepts. The object of this paper is to review some of the most important analytical and methodological issues which arise in applying a systems approach to the analysis of technological innovation.

Systems of innovation can be viewed in several dimensions. One important dimension is the physical or geographical dimension. Sometimes the focus is on a particular country or region which then determines the geographic boundaries of the system. In other cases the main dimension of interest is a sector or technology. In such cases, the determination of the relevant geographic boundaries is itself a theoretical or at least methodological issue. Due to the vast improvements in communication technology in recent decades, there is an international dimension to almost any economic activity. How to delineate a system is therefore an important issue.

Another dimension is that of time. In a system with built-in feedback mechanisms, the configuration of components, attributes, and relationships is constantly changing. Thus, a snapshot of the system at a particular point in time may differ substantially from another snapshot of the same system at a different time.

In the literature on systems of innovation there has not been much explicit discussion of the function or purpose of each system, nor of what constitutes inputs and outputs of the system. As a result, there is not much discussion of system performance either. Certainly, it is of great interest to measure or at least assess performance when similar systems are compared. Thus, the measurement of system performance raises another set of issues.

The paper is organized as follows. In the next section, we define what we mean by a ‘system’. We then review a variety of concepts of innovation systems which have appeared in the literature. This is followed by a discussion of common methodological issues arising in the empirical application of the system of innovation concept. We conclude with a brief summary of the main findings.

Section snippets

What is a system?

Systems engineers define a system as a set of interrelated components working toward a common objective. Systems are made up of components, relationships, and attributes.

Components are the operating parts of a system. They can be of a variety of types: actors or organizations such as individuals, business firms, banks, universities, research institutes, and public policy agencies (or parts or groups of each). They can be physical or technological artifacts such as turbogenerators, transformers,

Various systems approaches

One of the earliest system concepts used in the literature is that of input/output analysis (Leontief, 1941), focusing on the flows of goods and services among sectors in the economy at a particular point in time. Here, it is clear what the inputs and outputs are and how the system is configured. The components and relationships in the system are viewed at the meso (industry) level. The links among the components of the system are basically one-way, i.e. the system is static.

Another early

Methodological issues

There are a number of methodological issues which arise in the application of the analytical framework of technological systems. The framework is still fairly loosely defined and several methodological alternatives are available. In this section, we will focus primarily on technological systems, but the issues are similar in other systems approaches as well. Our aim is to contribute to the discussion of methodology with respect to the analysis of innovation systems.

In our studies of

Conclusion

In this paper, we have focused on some analytical and methodological issues which we have found to be particularly important in the analysis of technological systems, but which are also relevant in other approaches to innovation systems. These issues are, first, what is the appropriate level of analysis for the purpose at hand? Secondly, how do we determine the population, i.e. delineate the system and identify the actors and/or components? What are the key relationships that need to be

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