The Globalising Learning Economy:
Implications for Innovation Policy
Table of Contents
Foreword and acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Introduction
The challenges of the globalising learning economy for innovation policy
Developing a new vision and policy paradigm
The contents of the report
PART I: Challenges Raised by the Globalising Learning Economy
Chapter 2: Globalisation and the innovation process
Introduction
Major features and effects of globalisation
Market liberalisation and de-regulation
Increased communication in the world market
The effects of globalisation
Changes in the innovation process
The nature of the innovation process
What has changed in the 1980s?
Knowledge production and distribution in the new socio-economic conditions
Codified and tacit knowledge
Intensified codification trends
The limits of codification
Knowledge creation and globalisation
The learning process and the learning economy
Social and regional polarisation
Policy perspectives
Regional, national and European policy responsibilities in the learning economy
Chapter 3: A new theoretical rationale for innovation policy
Introduction
Economics and innovation policy
Neo-classical theory and technology policy
The economic peculiarities of knowledge and learning
Market failure in transacting codified knowledge
Tacit knowledge and market failure
The key characteristics of the neo-classical approach
Optimising and innovation
Equilibrium and innovation
Representative firms in the learning economy
Learning in the neo-classical model
Market failure in the learning economy
Spill-overs in the learning economy
New growth theory
Policy-making in the old paradigm
New theoretical insights and macro-trends in policy action
The new policy rationale
New directions for innovation policy over the last two decades
Picking winners or creating general framework conditions?
Recent trends at national level
Concluding remarks
Chapter 4: Policy learning
Introduction
Enhancing policy learning
Making more extensive use of external and independent sources for policy (re)formulation
Enhancing the social and political participation in the definition of technological alternatives
Learning from others
The European dimension of policy learning
Change, continuity and effectiveness in S&T policies
The need for further socio-economic studies
PART II: The New Theoretical Context and Its Policy Implications
Chapter 5: Science policy in the new context
Introduction
Scientific activities take place in an artificially simplified environment
Barriers between research institutions and industry are functional and dysfunctional
Does it pay for national governments to invest in basic science?
On the importance of advanced demand
The regional, national and European levels regarding science-policy
Chapter 6: Innovation policy and new ways of organising the firm
Introduction
Intensified competition forces firms to find new ways of doing things
Main trends in modes of organisation and in skill requirements
Where do the new organisational principles come from?
The new organisational mode as a framework for product innovation
New trends in skill requirements
Creating ‘learning to learn’ capabilities and environments
Japanese versus US principles of organisation
Organisational principles and national systems of innovation
European diversity
Public policies to support the introduction of new modes of organisation and human resource development
Public policy in relation to human resource development
The need for a New New Deal
Dividing policy responsibilities between regions, nations and the European Union
Chapter 7: Creating networks and stimulating interactive learning
Introduction
Networks and inter-firm co-operation
The regional and local dimension of networks
The costs and risks of networking
Policy experiences with networks
Types of support mechanism
Public schemes - rationale and lessons
Chapter 8: Knowledge-intensive services in the learning economy
Introduction
The interaction between services and manufacturing
What are knowledge-intensive services?
The innovation process and the role of knowledge intensive services
The transformation of knowledge-intensive services over the last two decades
Policy implications
Chapter 9: Technology procurement and user-oriented Policies
Introduction
What is Government Technology Procurement?
The rationale for and against government intervention
The US and European models
Towards a second generation of policy instruments?
1. “Procurers as end-users” v “Procurers as catalysts”
2. “Creation-oriented” and “dissemination-oriented” procurement.
User-producer co-operation: Technology procurement without government
The EU and national technology procurement policies
Chapter 10: Innovation and competition policy in a new context
Introduction
Competition and competition policy in the globalising learning economy
The Schumpeterian trade-off
Competition and incremental innovation
Competition and co-operation
Spill-overs, sticky knowledge and inter-firm co-operation
Globalisation, regionalisation and technological alliances
Competition and co-operation in the learning economy
Positioning European firms in global networking
Can competition become too intense?
Should competition policy aim to slow down the rate of change?
Increasing the capability to absorb change
The division of policy responsibilities between regional, national and European level
Summary
PART III: Concluding Remarks
Chapter 11: Concluding remarks
Introduction
The model
Transformation pressure
Ability to innovate and adapt to change
Costs and benefits of change and their social and spatial distribution
The globalising learning economy
Building up transformation pressure
New demands on the ability to innovate and adapt to change
More uneven social and spatial distribution of the costs and benefits of change
Policy alternatives
Creating a balance between transformation pressure, innovative capability and distributional objectives
Increasing the ability to innovate – moving along the technological trajectory
Human resource development
New forms of organisation
Building innovative networks
A new role for the service sector
Integrating research institutions into the innovation system
Innovation policy in a wider perspective
Responding to the inherent contradictions in the globalising learning economy
The parallel with post-war US military procurement of information technology and software
Building new technological systems
A European agenda for innovation policy
Elements of an agenda for socio-economic research
References
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Last update, 12th October 1998
