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Intellectual Property Rights And Concentration In Agricultural Biotechnology William Lesser Cornell University AgBioForum Fall98 v.1, n.2 The relationships between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and structural change are examined in this paper. Intellectual property rights are a complex, multifaceted area and one in which corporate strategies are poorly understood. Nevertheless, it is argued here that IPRs can affect firm entry, can make vertical integration in downstream industries more or less necessary, and can create financial incentives for downstream mergers and acquisitions. Hence, IPRs can have significant structural impacts. Key words: intellectual property rights; agrobiotechnology; industry structure; research and development (R&D) The later 1990s have been a tumultuous time for merger and acquisition activity among firms involved in agricultural biotechnology. By the end of the third quarter of 1998, Monsanto alone had been involved in 18 acquisitions and had itself agreed and then reneged on a merger with American Home Products. In addition, Monsanto completed overseas acquisitions worth a total of $7.3 billion over two years. Novartis was formed by the merging of Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy, while DuPont chose to enter the market through joint ventures; a total of 20 joint ventures valued at over $5 billion (Moore, 1998). These mergers have contributed greatly to a restructuring of the seed industry. Most notably, Monsanto controlled up to 40 percent of seed for the 1998 United States (U.S.) soybean crop and, if approved, full acquisition of Delta & Pine Land will give Monsanto ownership of at least 80 percent of the U.S. cotton seed industry (Kilman & Warren, 1998). This is not the only incidence of major acquisition activity, a previous one occurred about 20 years earlier. Butler and Marion (1985) list 27 mergers during the period 1978-80. The 1980 date is pivotal as it marks some strengthening amendments to the United States Plant Variety Prot

Handbook of the Economics of Innovation Set Authors  Submit Your Book Proposal Hardbound, 1400 pages Published: MAR-2010 ISBN 13: 978-0-444-53611-2 Imprint: NORTH-HOLLAND Actions    Submit Your Review    Recommend to Friend    Bookmark this Page Edited By Bronwyn H. Hall, University of California at Berkeley,CA, USA Nathan Rosenberg, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA Economists examine the genesis of technological change and the ways we commercialize and diffuse it.  The economics of property rights and patents, in addition to industry applications, are also surveyed through literature reviews and predictions about fruitful research directions. - Two volumes, available as a set or sold separately Included in series Handbooks in Economics Audience: Students and researchers studying technological change.  Articles are written by economists for a multidisciplinary readership, including industry professionals, attorneys, educators, and anyone interested in new technologies. Ordering Contents Reviews Volume I: Chapters 1-16 1. Introduction to the handbook;  2.  The contribution of economic history to the study of innovation and technical change: 1750-1914;  3.  Technical change and industrial dynamics as evolutionary processes;  4.  Empirical studies of innovative activity and performance;  5.  The economics of science; 6.  University research and public-private interaction; 7.  Property rights and invention; 8.  Stylized facts in the geography of innovation; 9.  Open User Innovation; 10.  Learning by doing; 11.  Innovative conduct in computing and internet markets; 12.  Pharmaceutical innovation; 13.  Collective invention and invention networks; 14.  The financing of R&D and innovation; 15.  The market for technology; 16.  Technological innovation and the theory of the firm: The role of enterprise level knowledge, complimentarities, and (dynamic) capabilities Volume II: Chapters 17-29 17.  The diffusion of new technolog

Abstracts for papers and proposals for sessions (no more than 500 words) will be considered by the conference Scientific Committee. For sessions an overview and 3-4 abstracts should be proposed, and a session chair identified. Both, paper abstracts and session proposals should be submitted to it-apn2010@ivm.vu.nl by 15 October 2010. The conference Scientific Committee will provide decisions on selected papers and sessions by the 30 October 2010. Those invited to present will be asked to provide short papers by 15 December 2010. These will be made available on the conference website: http://umconference.um.edu.my/it-apn2011 prior to the meeting. Authors of accepted papers will be invited to make 15 minute presentations at the conference. Guidelines for Fullpaper Submission The full papers should be up to 8000 words and include title, authors names and affiliations incl. address, telephone and email, abstract, main text and references. Pls number your pages. Figures and tables should be part of the text and not a separate file. We do not define font, spacing or format - just be reasonable by avoiding extremes. The full papers should rather be submitted as pdfs for better protection but of course word files will also be accepted. Papers Accepted for Presentation 012 The development of biofuel in Indonesia from diffusion and stakeholder interactions - Joni Jupesta   014 Niche management policy to increase the market share of Alternative Fuel Vehicles : A system dynamics model of the policy effect - Tae-Hyeong Kwon   015 Enhancing Sustained Adoption of Innovations: The Case of Bio-nitrogen Fertilizer in the Philippines - Linda Penalba   016 Enabling poverty relevant bio-fertilizer bio-innovation systems - lessons from India - Sunita Sungar   017 Ethical Market: Ethnographic Encounter with Global Market, CML patients, and Glivec in South Korea - Eun Jeong Ma   018 Surge of high-input vegetable production in northern Thailand: Is the innovation pro-poor and gende

A plethora of definitions for innovation types has resulted in an ambiguity in the way the terms 'innovation' and 'innovativeness' are operationalized and utilized in the new product development literature. The terms radical, really-new, incremental and discontinuous are used ubiquitously to identify innovations. One must question, what is the difference between these different classifications? To date consistent definitions for these innovation types have not emerged from the new product research community. A review of the literature from the marketing, engineering, and new product development disciplines attempts to put some clarity and continuity to the use of these terms. This review shows that it is important to consider both a marketing and technological perspective as well as a macrolevel and microlevel perspective when identifying innovations. Additionally, it is shown when strict classifications from the extant literature are applied, a significant shortfall appears in empirical work directed toward radical and really new innovations. A method for classifying innovations is suggested so that practitioners and academics can talk with a common understanding of how a specific innovation type is identified and how the innovation process may be unique for that particular innovation type. A recommended list of measures based on extant literature is provided for future empirical research concerning technological innovations and innovativeness. "A rose is a rose is a rose. And a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet." Gertrude Stein & William Shakespeare

THE ECONOMICS OF INNOVATION AND PRODUCTIVITY This research focuses on the development of an integrated framework for understanding the dynamics of the generation, dissemination and exploitation of technological knowledge and its effects on the growth of companies, regions and countries. It involves the use of different methodological designs, ranging from network analysis to econometrics and clinical case studies, to accommodate the variety of issues under scrutiny and to combine theoretical contributions and supporting empirical analyses. It includes several principal research lines: * Knowledge structure and productivity growth * Generation and exploitation of technological change: Market value and total factor productivity * Biased technological change and total factor productivity based on country and regional European evidence. . The topics explored within this line of research include: 1. Microeconomic analysis of the relationships between firm performance and human capital and technological knowledge. 2. Investigation of the relationships between education, scientific and technological knowledge, and regional economic growth. 3. Analysis of country and industry level productivity differentials among the industrialized countries and between industrialized and developing countries. It is hoped that this research will result in an organic heuristic structure that explains the complex and composite nature of the economic transformations in advanced countries. Recent publications Antonelli, C. and Calderini, M., 2008, 'The governance of knowledge compositeness and technological performance: The case of the automotive industry in Europe', Economics of Innovation and New Technology (17) 23-41. Antonelli, C., 2008, 'The new economics of the university: A knowledge governance approach', Journal of Technology Transfer, (33): 1-22. Antonelli, C., 2008, Localized Technological Change. Towards the Economis of Complexity, London: Routledge. Antonelli C. and T

Orchestrating innovation networks: The case of innovation brokers in the agri-food sector Entrepreneurship & Regional Development: An International Journal Volume 22, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 47 - 76 Authors: Maarten H. Batterinkab; Emiel F. M. Wubbena; Laurens Klerkxc; S. W. F. (Onno) Omtaa DOI: 10.1080/08985620903220512 Online Sample       Subscribe Abstract This explorative study of network orchestration processes conducted by innovation brokers addresses new issues in bridging small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and research institutes in innovation networks. The study includes four in-depth case studies in the agri-food sector from different countries: the Netherlands, Germany and France. A guiding research question is how innovation brokers successfully orchestrate innovation networks of SMEs. Based on literature research and cases, we conclude that the innovation broker may have great added value for innovation networks with divergent organizations, especially when the innovation broker takes the lead in three network orchestration functions: innovation initiation, network composition and innovation process management. In addition, the case findings offer best practices of innovation brokers for these orchestration processes.

Many recent studies maintain that regional characteristics influence the innovative performances, innovation processes and innovation patterns of firms. Based on a representative sample of knowledge-intensive firms in Norway, this paper analyses the innovation output, innovation partners, knowledge sources, and localization of sources and partners for knowledge-intensive firms in three types of region: large urban regions, small urban regions and rural areas.The empirical results contradict some of the assumptions of the literature dealing with agglomeration economies, regional clusters, and so on. We find, for example, that the firms' innovation partners and knowledge sources are quite similar irrespective of location. This may indicate that the relevant innovation systems in knowledge-intensive industries in Norway are sectoral and national rather than regional. The paper also finds that the small urban regions and the rural regions have a higher share of innovating, knowledge-intensive firms than the large urban regions, which may partly be explained by a much higher rate of public funding of innovation activity in the first two regional types. However, the large urban regions have higher new firm formation rates and more radically innovating firms than the other two types of region. The paper discusses to what extent the concept of open innovation may contribute to explaining the empirical results, because firms in large urban regions can rely more on open innovation than firms in other regions.

Platforms, Markets and Innovation Annabelle Gawer 0 Resenhas Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010 - 396 páginas 'In her pioneering book Platform Leadership (with Michael Cusumano), Gawer gave us the strategy of building coalitions of customers, suppliers, and complementors. Now, she brings together a number of the leading researchers in the area of platform strategy to give us a book that will be a key reference for both practitioners and academics. Adam Brandenburger, New York University, US 'Annabelle Gawer's collected volume of research shows that a vibrant community of scholars has arisen around platforms and innovation. Each of the chapters is first rate, with top researchers offering some of their latest work. This will be an indispensable book for students of innovation and technology management everywhere. Henry Chesbrough, University of California, Berkeley, US 'Annabelle Gawer's Platforms, Markets and Innovation is the first serious exploration of the critical but subtle role that platforms play in business, society and our personal lives. As digital technologies penetrate every nook and cranny of the world around us, we rely on platforms to both help us use the new technologies, as well as to organize new markets of innovation that add applications on top of the platforms and make them far more valuable. Dr Gawer's excellent book is designed to help us understand the mysterious nature of platforms. It brings together the insights of twenty-four experts around the world who contributed to the fourteen chapters of the book. Dr Gawer's book is invaluable to anyone trying to understand the nuanced nature of platforms, and their implications for the evolution of innovation in the 21st century. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM Academy of Technology, US The emergence of platforms is a novel phenomenon impacting most industries, from products to services. Industry platforms such as Microsoft Windows or Google, embedded within industrial ecosystems, have redesigned our in

Innovation and Growth: Chasing a Moving Frontier Vandana Chandra, Pier Carlo Padoan, Deniz Eröcal, Carlos A. Primo Braga 0 Resenhas OECD Publishing, 2009 - 264 páginas Innovation is crucial to long-term economic growth, even more so in the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis. Making innovation-driven growth happen requires action in a wide range of policy areas, from education and science and technology to product and labour markets and trade. The OECD and the World Bank are joining forces to work more closely on innovation, particularly insofar as this issue is a crucial factor in the success of development policy, notably in middle-income economies. In this volume, the two organisations jointly take stock of how globalisation is posing new challenges for innovation and growth in both developed and developing countries, and how countries are coping with them. The authors discuss options for policy initiatives that can foster technological innovation in the pursuit of faster and sustainable growth. The various chapters highlight how the emergence of an integrated global market affects the impact of national innovation policy. What seemed like effective innovation strategies (e.g. policies designed to strengthen the R&D capacity of domestic firms) are no longer sufficient for effective catch-up. The more open and global nature of innovation makes policies for innovation more difficult to design and implement at the national scale alone. These challenges are further complicated by new phenomena, such as global value chains and the fragmentation of production, the growing role of global corporations, and the ICT revolution. Where and why a global corporation chooses to anchor its production affects the playing field for OECD and developing economies alike.

THE ECONOMICS OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Innovation is acknowledged to be a multidimensional and complex process. Thus, traditional research and development (R&D) expenditures capture only a portion of the sources of and activities involved in innovation. Innovation investment includes: a) basic research; b) product development; c) adoption of new production techniques and technologies; d) organizational change; e) distribution and market changes; f) production organization and access to production factors; and g) training and the development of new skills. Traditional in-house R&D investment is being complemented by external sources of innovation and new knowledge. Recent contributions in the economics of knowledge and innovation highlight that innovation is a cooperative and collective process. Collaboration between firms, and between firms and universities, R&D centres and technology transfer centres is a strategy aimed at the sharing of knowledge and competencies, and obtaining the benefits of technological complementarities. Innovation is rarely the result of individual firm efforts; it generally emerges from the interactions among local firms and institutions within a network of innovators. This research is aimed at identifying, understanding and classifying the different ways firms innovate, distinguishing between internal and external sources. Special emphasis is put on understanding the multiple organizational forms involved in innovation and the problems encountered by economic agents and their organizations in acquiring and coordinating their innovative capabilities. The theoretical framework developed is tested on the automotive industry. Recent publications

Modern societies face several structural problems such as transport congestion and greenhouse gas emissions due to the widespread use of fossil fuels. To address these important societal problems and achieve sustainability in the broad sense, major transformations are required, but this poses an enormous challenge given the complexity of the processes involved. Such transformations are called 'transitions' or 'system innovations' and involve changes in a variety of elements, including technology, regulation, user practices and markets, cultural meaning and infrastructure. This book considers two main questions: how do system innovations or transitions come about and how can they be influenced by different actors, in particular by governments. The authors identify the theories which can be used to conceptualise the dynamics of system innovations and discuss the weaknesses in these theories. They also look at the lessons which can be learned from historical examples of transitions, and highlight the instruments and policy tools which can be used to stimulate future system innovations towards sustainability. The expert contributors address these questions using insights from a variety of different disciplines including innovation studies, evolutionary economics, the sociology of technology, environmental analysis and governance studies. The book concludes with an extensive summary of the results and practical suggestions for future research. This important new volume offers an interdisciplinary assessment of how and why system innovations occur. It will engage and inform academics and researchers interested in transitions towards sustainability, and will also be highly relevant for policymakers concerned with environmental issues, structural change and radical innovation.

Abstract This paper addresses the emergence and development of firm-centred knowledge networks within learning and innovation systems in late-industrialising countries. A key contribution of the paper is conceptual and methodological: the development of an original typology of knowledge network properties to trace out changes in the form of networks as they evolve over time. A second contribution consists in providing an example of the application of the typology by examining the emergence and development of a firm-centred knowledge network in the case of Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company over more than 30 years between the late 1960s and the early 2000s. This demonstrates that the properties of Petrobras' knowledge networks continuously evolved through a succession of stages towards (i) increasing intentionality in the management decision-making underlying network development, (ii) growing complexity and diversity in selected cognitive characteristics, and (iii) greater complementarity in the division of innovative labour between Petrobras and its network partners. These original results from applying the typology, in conjunction with retrospective historical methods, illustrate only one aspect of its potential value in the analysis of knowledge networks in late-industrialising economies: tracking out organisational evolution over long periods of time. Others include the comparative examination of network differences across different circumstances and the analysis of relationships between changes/differences in network properties and other characteristics of learning/innovation systems and their contexts. Article Outline 1. Introduction 2. Petrobras and its context 3. The emergence and development of knowledge networks: a framework for analysis 4. Research design and method 5. Petrobras' knowledge network: from passive learning to strategic innovation 5.1. The late 1960s-1984: from a passive towards an active learning network 5.2. From 1985 to 1991: cons

Freedom to Innovate: Biotechnology in Africa's Development Report of the High-Level African Panel on Modern Biotechnology Report, African Union and New Partnership for Africa's Development August 2007 Authors: Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa, Ismail Serageldin Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Science, Technology, and Globalization; Science, Technology, and Public Policy; Agricultural Innovation in Africa   This report is about the role of biotechnology in the transformation of African economies. The implications of its recommendations, however, need to be seen beyond the confines of biological innovations. They address critical issues related to Africa's place in a globalizing economy. Undertaken at the request of heads of state and government this report demonstrates what is needed to build the required capacity to harness and apply biotechnologies to improve agricultural productivity, public health, industrial development, economic competitiveness, and environmental sustainability (including biodiversity conservation) in Africa. It also shows that the measures needed to address biotechnology will strengthen Africa's capacity to adapt other technologies to economic development. In fact, previous inabilities to build capacity in fields such as information technology hamper the continent's efforts in biotechnology. This report has placed these systemic considerations in the context of the role of innovation in economic transformation. It challenges Africa's heads of state and government to take seriously the importance of a coordinated approach in promoting technological innovation in development. African governments have recognized the importance of regional cooperation to address possibilities and the range of issues associated with biotechnology. Within the framework of the New Partnership for Africa's De

Special Issue: Innovation and Dynamic Efficiency in Agricultural Biotechnology Guest editors: James F. Oehmke, Carl Pray, and Anwar Naseem Preface: Innovation and Dynamic Efficiency in Agricultural Biotechnology J.F. Oehmke, C.E. Pray, & A. Naseem Innovation and Dynamic Efficiency in Plant Biotechnology: An Introduction to the Researchable Issues C.E. Pray, J.F. Oehmke, & A. Naseem Who is Doing What? Intellectual Property Rights in a Changing Political Environment: Perspectives on the Types and Administration of Protection W. Lesser Patterns of Public-Sector and Private-Sector Patenting in Agricultural Biotechnology P.W. Heisey, J.L. King, & K. Day Rubenstein Mergers, Acquisitions, and Stocks of Agricultural Biotechnology Intellectual Property J.L. King & D.E. Schimmelpfennig An Innovation Market Approach to Analyzing Impacts of Mergers and Acquisitions in the Plant Biotechnology Industry M. Brennan, C.E. Pray, A. Naseem, & J.F. Oehmke Does Plant Variety Intellectual Property Protection Improve Farm Productivity? Evidence From Cotton Varieties A. Naseem, J.F. Oehmke, & D.E. Schimmelpfennig What are the Current Effects of Industry Structure? Intellectual Property Rights on Research Tools: Incentives or Barriers to Innovation? Case Studies of Rice Genomics and Plant Transformation Technologies C.E. Pray & A. Naseem Property Rights and Incentives to Invest in Seed Varieties: Governmental Regulations in Argentina J.P. Kesan & A.A. Gallo Monopoly Power, Price Discrimination, and Access to Biotechnology Innovations A.K.A. Acquaye & G. Traxler Whither Biotechnology Research? Can Technology Transfer Help Public-Sector Researchers Do More with Less? The Case of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service K. Day Rubenstein & P.W. Heisey Second-Generation GMOs: Where to from Here? K.Y. Jefferson-Moore & G. Traxler Articles Bt Corn Farmer Compliance with Insect Resistance Management Requirements in Minnesota and Wisconsin J. Goldberger, J. Merrill, & T. Hurley Perceptions

rom regional systems of innovation to regions as innovation policy spaces Elvira Uyarra, Kieron Flanagan Received 7 April 2009; in revised form 14 January 2010 Abstract. The regional systems of innovation concept is well established in academic and practitioner discourses about innovation and economic development. As with the innovation systems approach more generally, the use of the concept has expanded significantly from its initial analytical purpose and has been extensively used to inform policy making. We identify a number of dangers associated with the use of regional systems of innovation as a normative concept which both overstates and at the same time underemphasises the roles regions play as policy-making and implementation spaces. These issues are explored in the paper with an illustration of the North West region of England

Over the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the quantity and quality of research focused on the processes through which technological capabilities are acquired by countries significantly behind the economic frontier, and the institutions that effectively support the catching up process. This book is a splendid contribution to this literature. The concept of a "sectoral innovation system" is well suited for framing studies of these kinds of questions, and serves well to unify the many interesting empirical studies in the book. Some of those studies are success stories, others of less successful cases. Readers new to this body of research will find this book a great introduction. All readers will learn a lot from it about what is required for and involved in economic development.' Richard R. Nelson, Columbia Earth Institute, US and University of Manchester, UK This book examines in detail the features and dynamics of sectoral systems of innovation and production in developing countries. Processes of rapid growth are usually associated with specific sectors such as automobiles, electronics or software, as well as with the transformation of traditional sectors such as agriculture and food. The book shows, however, that the variations across all these sectors in terms of structure and dynamics is so great that a full understanding of these differences is necessary if innovation is to be encouraged and growth sustained. The expert contributors promote this understanding by drawing upon empirical evidence from a wide range of sectoral systems, from traditional to high technology, and across a number of countries. They explore how these systems change and evolve, highlighting policy lessons to be drawn from the analysis. Case studies include the Brazilian aeronautical, pulp and paper industries, the Korean machine tool sector, motorbike manufacture in Thailand and Vietnam, pharmaceuticals and telecommunication equipment in India, ICT in Taiwan, the biofuels s

Following up on recent debates about sectoral systems of innovation and production, the paper introduces a heuristic framework for analyzing and explaining distinct patterns of technology-based sectoral change. The concept is based on two interrelated influencing factors. The first is the sectoral-specific transformative capacity of new technologies themselves, that is, their substantial or incremental impact on socioeconomic and institutional change in a given sectoral system. The second is the sectoral adaptability of socioeconomic structures, institutions, and actors confronted with the opportunities presented by new technologies. The first factor-the sectoral transformative capacity of new technologies-enables us to identify the technology-based pressure to change and adjust the structural, institutional, and organizational architectures of the sectoral system. The second, complementary factor-sectoral adaptability-helps us to discern the distinct social patterns of anticipating and adopting this technology-based pressure. The specific interplay between the two influencing factors creates distinguishable modes of sectoral transformation, ranging from anticipative and smooth adjustments to reactive and crisis-ridden patterns of change. Even processes of radical sectoral change continue over longer periods of mismatch and are characterized by numerous and mostly gradual organizational, structural and institutional transformations. Article Outline 1. Technology-based socioeconomic and institutional change: starting points 2. Sociotechnical systems and periods of mismatch 3. New technologies and their transformative capacity 3.1. Specification I: endogenous vs. exogenous technology 3.2. Specification II: low vs. high transformative capacity 4. New technologies and sectoral adaptability 4.1. Specification I: low adaptability 4.2. Specification II: high adaptability 4.2.1. High intensity of innovation and market competition 4.2.2. Transformation-supporting in

Abstract In Varieties of Capitalism; The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, Peter A. Hall and David Soskice (H&S) argue that technological specialization patterns are largely determined by the prevailing "variety of capitalism". They hypothesize that "liberal market economies" (LMEs) specialize in radical innovation, while "coordinated market economies" (CMEs) focus more on incremental innovation. Mark Zachary Taylor [Taylor, M.Z., 2004. Empirical evidence against varieties of capitalism's theory of technological innovation. International Organization 58, 601-631.] convincingly argued that Hall and Soskice's empirical test is fundamentally flawed and proposed a more appropriate test of their conjecture. He rejected the varieties of capitalism explanation of innovation patterns. We extend and refine Taylor's analysis, using a broader set of radicality indicators and making industry-level comparisons. Our results indicate that Hall and Soskice's conjecture cannot be upheld as a general rule, but that it survives closer scrutiny for a substantial number of industries and an important dimension of radicality. Article Outline 1. Introduction 2. Innovation in liberal and coordinated market economies 3. Tests based on patent citation indicators 3.1. Indicators of radicality 3.2. Construction of radicality quantiles 3.3. Analytical techniques 4. Data issues 5. Empirical results 5.1. Revealed Comparative Technological Advantages 5.2. Histograms for radicality distributions 5.3. Statistical tests on equality of distributions 6. Conclusions Acknowledgements Appendix A. Appendix References

novation by demand: an interdisciplinary approach to the study of demand and its role in innovation Andrew McMeekin 0 Resenhas Manchester University Press, 2002 - 214 páginas This book brings together a range of sociologists and economists to study the role of demand and consumption in the innovative process. It begins with a broad conceptual overview of ways that the sociological and economics literatures address issues of innovation, demand, and consumption. It goes on to offer different approaches to the economics of demand and innovation through an evolutionary framework, before reviewing how consumption fits into evolutionary models of economic development.

The slowdown of growth in Western industrialized nations in the last twenty years, along with the rise of Japan as a major economic and technological power (and enhanced technical sophistication of Taiwan, Korea, and other NICs) has led to what the authors believe to be a "techno-nationalism." This combines a strong belief that technological capabilities of a nation's firms are a key source of their competitive process, with a belief that these capabilities are in a sense national, and can be built by national action. This book is about these national systems of technical innovation. The heart of the work contains studies of seventeen countries--from large market-oriented industrialized ones to several smaller high income ones, including a number of newly industrialized states as well. Clearly written, this work highlights institutions and mechanisms which support technical innovation, showing similarities, differences, and their sources across nations, making this work accessible to students as well as the scholars of innovation.