Innovation Policy for Knowledge Production and R&D: the Investment Portfolio Approach

Susana Borrás () and Charles Edquist

No 2014/21, Papers in Innovation Studies from Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research

Abstract: Who produces scientific and technical knowledge these days? What type of knowledge is being produced and for what purposes? Why are firms and governments funding research and development? This chapter studies the role of knowledge production (especially R&D activities) in the innovation process from an innovation system perspective. It examines how governments and public agencies in different countries and at different times have actually approached the issue of building, maintaining and using knowledge production in their innovation systems. It also examines the critical and most important issues at stake from the point of view of innovation policy, looking in particular at the unresolved tensions and systemic unbalances related to knowledge production and last but not least, it elaborates a set of overall criteria for the selection and design of relevant policy instruments and addresses those tensions and unbalances. This chapter suggests that innovation policy develops a portfolio approach to the public investment in R&D and knowledge production.

Keywords: Innovation system; innovation policy; knowledge production; R&D; universities; innovation policy instruments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L38 M38 O25 O31 O32 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2014-10-23
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-ino, nep-knm, nep-sbm and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2014_021

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