Introduction

Theories in the social sciences may be regarded as ‘focusing devices’. Any specific theory brings forward and exposes some aspects of the real world, leaving others in obscurity. That is why a long-lasting hegemony of one single theoretical tradition is damaging, both in terms of understanding and policymaking. In the field of economics, the dominating neoclassical paradigm puts its analytical focus on concepts such as scarcity, allocation and exchange in a static context. Even if these concepts reflect important phenomena in the real world, they only bring forward some aspects of the economic system. One aim of this book is to demonstrate the need for an alternative and supplementary focusing device that puts interactive learning and innovation at the centre of analysis.

Through more than a decade, a group of economists at Aalborg University working on a research program on Innovation, Knowledge and Economic Dynamics – the IKE group – has worked together studying industrial development and international competitiveness from such a perspective. This book presents results from this work in relation to one specific subject: national systems of innovation.

Our choice of perspective and subject is based on two sets of assumptions. First, it is assumed that the most fundamental resource in the modern economy is knowledge and accordingly that the most important process is learning. The fact that knowledge differs in crucial respects from other resources in the economy makes standard economics less relevant and motivates efforts to develop an alternative paradigm.

Second, it is assumed that learning is predominantly an interactive, and therefore a socially embedded, process that cannot be understood without taking into consideration its institutional and cultural context. Specifically, it is assumed that the historical establishment and development of the modern nation state was a necessary prerequisite for the acceleration of the process of learning, which propelled the process of industrialization during the last centuries. Finally, it is recognized that the traditional role of nation states in supporting learning processes is now challenged by the process of internationalization and globalization.