Past, present, and future of the National Systems of Innovation approach

Bengt-Åke Lundvall

Chapter 15 in A Research Agenda for Innovation and Development, 2026, pp 222-237 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: More than forty years ago, the author had the privilege of working closely with Christopher Freeman. One important outcome of this collaboration was the concept of national innovation systems. Our common starting point was a critique of neoclassical economics and of economic policies derived from that perspective. The chapter takes these early contributions as a departure for a discussion of how innovation systems relate to mainstream economics. As a next step, it shows that the NSI-concept is crucial when it comes to explaining the rise of China and the new world order characterized by deglobalization and techno-nationalism. It ends by indicating a future research agenda for innovation systems. The current world order, characterized by the emergence of artificial intelligence and intellectual monopolies, presents new threats and opportunities and the twin global challenges, climate change and inequality, require a re-orientation of the NSI-perspective with a focus on co-evolution of socio-economic systems and nature.

Keywords: Innovation Systems; Economics; World Order; Techno-nationalism; Inequality; Nature (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035344338
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