Absorptive capacities approaches for investigating national innovation systems in low and middle income countries

This review article covers some of the founding literature that helps develop our understandingof the National Innovation System (NIS) concept. Subsequently, several versionsof NIS, including system-functional approaches, are discussed and compared with narrowresearch and development (R&D) and market-based approaches. Finally, the article contendsthat the system-functional and other narrow approaches are limited in application tothe developing low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Thus, it makes a case for moreinclusive absorptive capacity approaches and explains how they might be more relevant ininvestigating the NIS of an LMIC. Such approaches suggest LMICs be strategic in buildingtheir innovation base and plead for strong local conditions (capacities)to produceknowledge as well as capture and improvise on incoming knowledge from abroad. Theresearch is important as it provides insights into analyzing and capturing innovationprocesses in LMICs, which are prime candidates for development and innovation studiesandpractice.