NATIONAL KNOWLEDGE INNOVATION SYSTEMS: EVOLUTION, DEFINITION AND INDICATORS

The paper examines the three stages of the evolution of national innovation systems: national technology innovation systems, national innovation systems and national knowledge innovation systems. A national knowledge innovation system is a network of institutions and organizations which jointly or individually contributes to the knowledge innovation (including scientific and technical knowledge innovation). The author stresses that knowledge innovation will occur in all processes of the produc-tion, transmission and use of knowledge. There are four subsystems in this system: scientific knowledge innovation, technical knowledge innovation, knowledge trans-mission and knowledge use subsystem. The author also lists some indicators for the System.

Production and Innovation in Supply Platforms:Insights from the Innovation Systems and Value Chain Approaches

This paper introduces the term ＇supply platform＇ as a tentative and open-ended concept that captures characteristics of central importance for the study of export-oriented producers. As regional concentrations of export-oriented suppliers in China and India are maturing, many firms are now striving to build up innovation capabilities. How do we study the transition from production capabilities to innovation capabilities in supply platforms？ This paper reviews the insights from the innovation systems and global value chain literatures and discusses how we may build on these approaches for empirical studies of transition. It is found that these literatures provide important hypotheses for empirical research but more conceptual work is needed in order to address adequately the question of interest.

Innovation systems and global value chains:A Co-citation analysis of established linkages and possible future trends

This study draws a historical picture of conceptual linkages of innovation systems(IS)and global value chains(GVC).We used a co-citation technique to map the evolution of these two fields since 1990.We highlighted the connecting nodes over the past three decades.The first decade witnessed a connection between national innovation systems(NIS)and GVC,mediated by regional studies related to industrial clusters and district-based innovation.The tradeoff between tacit sticky local and codified transferable global knowledge and innovation and learning's importance in upgrading in GVC generated two new routes in the second decade.In the last decade,although these routes are retained,their mediating nodes have changed with the literature on technology and sustainable transition from IS and the path dependency role in the evolution of districts in global production networks.Recent trends indicate that evolutionary views on economic geography and catch-up may open new opportunities to link the two,and some lessons highlight the need for more structured interactions in the future.

Indigenous Knowledge and Developing Countries’Innovation Systems:The Case of Namibia

This article analyzes in‐depth the development trajectory of the innovation systems(IS)in the case of Namibia.The research data consists of documents,interviews and studies related to IS development in Namibia from the 1990s until early 2016.The case study highlights the spatiotemporal challenges of creating an IS in a developing country with limited STI resources and the potential mismatch between related strategies and practices.IS is a broad framework that identifies and maps potential relevant actors for innovation development but it does not necessary enhance interactions between the actors of IS.For developing countries,the doing‐using‐interacting mode of innovation fits better when the aim is to integrate indigenous knowledge(IK)into an IS.An IK‐included IS can facilitate participatory development processes,foster socioeconomic resilience of local communities and enhance the comparative advantage of a developing country.

Building capabilities in natural resource-dependent economies:An innovation systems analysis of the TVET program in Guyana

This paper examines Guyana's technical and vocational education and training(TVET)system in relation to diversifying the country's economy away from natural resource exports.The innovation systems approach is used to examine the effectiveness of TVET as a means of building capabilities in Guyana's key industries,gold and sugar,providing a snapshot of the state of the system in early,2016.Ten interviewees across several areas of expertise were consulted in Georgetown,Guyana.The analysis of primary and secondary research finds TVET's effectiveness to be limited by a lack of labor market information and funding,energy costs,a“brain drain”,and insufficient information communication technology skills and infrastructure.Recommended remedies include increasing the frequency of labor market surveys,attracting the Guyanese diaspora back to share knowledge,reducing the cost of energy by taking advantage of domestic renewable energy potential,and setting up a Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Innovation and Technical Efficiency in the Smallholder Dairy Production System in Ethiopia

This study provides estimates of smallholder household＇s production efficiency and its determinants, and separately analyses the technical efficiency of dairy technology adopting and non-adopting farmers using data from Ethiopia. Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier production function was modeled in the context of local level agricultural innovation systems framework and estimated using 2011 milk production data on 304 dairy farmers. Results show that the mean level of technical efficiency among the sampled farmers was about 26%. This result suggests that there is room for significant increases of production through reallocation of existing resources. Despite significant variation among farmers, these results also indicate only 19% of farmers have mean efficiency scores （_〉 50%）, implying a need to focus on creating innovation capacity that pushes the production frontier outward in the dairy production system. It is also revealed that individual farm households＇ efficiency varied widely across dairy technology adoption status, gender and districts. The significant gamma （g） statistic, of 0.9985 in the analysis indicates that about 99.85% variation in the output of milk production would be attributed to technical inefficiency effects （those under farmer＇s control） while only 0.0015% would be due to random effects, i.e., beyond the farmers control and hence calling for a focus on efficiency enhancing investments. Education, farm size, extension visit and off-farm income opportunity were found to be efficiency enhancing. The study recommends that different components of an agricultural innovation system have to interact to improve the innovation capacity of different actors and thereby improve the estimated technical inefficiencies.

The Innovation Public Policies and the Firms＇ Adoption of Innovative Processes： Some Notes About the Portuguese Case

Innovation is considered an important competitiveness factor for firms and a source of wealth for economies. Innovation appears as a positive value and as a solution to solve social problems and firm＇s competitiveness. Therefore it is an important subject of policy intervention and territory development, so organizations are encouraged to adopt innovative practices through incentives and innovation policies. This paper aims to propose a new methodological approach for public policy supporting innovation evaluation in a territorial-based analysis. A new methodology which intended to contribute to strengthen and reinforce the innovation effectiveness in firms and territory development resulting from support of public mechanisms. Some economic and sociological studies had showed that Portuguese firms adopt more easily technological innovations （with short-term effects） than organizational and social innovations. In this sense, we will consider innovation public policies effects at firms and how they take available opportunities for innovation. The aim is to know if the concept of innovation spread by these policies is multidimensional （e.g., social, economic and technological） or restricted. We propose to study the factors （internal and external） that affect innovation processes in firms through case studies methodology. This research strategy will show the processes of innovation from within the organizations and analyze the socio-economic context in which organizations operate.

Innovation capacity and the role of information systems:a qualitative study

Today businesses are facing radical transformations through digitalization of services and products.Accordingly,their ability to innovate is increasingly linked to the capacity to innovate through information and communication technologies(ICTs).This article investigates the role of information systems(IS)as a key factor for innovation capacity.To this end,the article discusses an interpretive framework for understanding the degree of capacity of innovation through information systems(IS)reached by a given company and the contradictions that bound its evolution.An interpretive study is also presented,where the framework has been applied to seven French companies from various industries.Consistently with the framework,the interviews address process areas and practices related to three core categories:management,innovation engineering and support.The study reveals seven fundamental contradictions that can explain the main tendencies observed across the companies.

Towards a holistic user innovation policy

This paper aims to synthesize previous user innovation policy proposals into an adapted system of innovation framework,on which a future holistic user innovation policy for the household sector can be based.We do this in three steps.First,we introduce the systems of innovation framework as a comprehensive basis for a holistic approach to innovation policy.Second,we identify and review policy proposals made by user innovation researchers and categorize them according to ten key activities in the systems of innovation framework.Third,from a system of innovation perspective,we synthesize the policy proposals identified into an adapted framework,including determinants specific to user innovation in the household sector.The synthesized proposals are intended to strengthen the systemic and multi-causal effects of policy on household sector user innovation in a country,region,or sector.Future policies for user innovation may,on this basis,be instrumental in avoiding mono-causality,or the concentration on only a few policy instruments in a proposed policy.

Harnessing the potential of additive manufacturing technologies:Challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurial strategies

Additive manufacturing(AM),a revolutionary production technique that will make many previously inconceivable innovations a reality,is transforming the manufacturing sector.The technologies behind AM have a generic character and possess immense and transformative potential that will be felt across different sectors of the economy.This paper studies how entrepreneurs can access,exploit,and diffuse this new disruptive knowledge,as well as the potential challenges that lie ahead.Further,we examine the magnitude of the knowledge pool created by the Top 10 countries in AM research from 2011 to 2016;specifically,we determine the leading countries,the pattern of organizational and international collaborations,leading disciplines contributing to AM,and the pattern in authors'affiliations.We find that the US is clearly the dominant country,while China witnessed a notable acceleration in AM research between 2014 and 2016;we also show that universities are the predominant actor in codified AM knowledge creation.Using this information,we paint a vivid picture of the technological and market opportunities for entrepreneurs and identify the gaps in the current knowledge production environment;we find that the challenges currently faced by entrepreneurs could be overcome through academic entrepreneurship,collective entrepreneurship,and the actions of an entrepreneurial state.

Wastewater treatment plants and release:The vase of Odin for emerging bacterial contaminants,resistance and determinant of environmental wellness

Municipal wastewater consists of a downstream collection of flushed sewage(without solid waste),other household runoffs,industrial runoffs,hospital runoffs and agricultural runoffs through an underground pipe before treatment.A runoff collection system called the wastewater treatment plant(WWTPs)treats such wastewater before release into environment following specific regulatory standards.This years-long practice has been improved upon by adding end-to-end pipe technologies with a view to enhancing the quality of effluent released.However,effluents released into the environment from design/application of WWTPs appear to contain emerging contaminants of both biotic and abiotic nature.The observation of chemical contaminants,antibiotic resistant bacteria(ARB),antibiotic resistant genes(ARGs)and diverse pathogenic bacteria genera in wastewater works release further affirm the abundance of such emerging contaminants.As a result,the government and water regulatory organizations in various part of the world are considering the removal of water reuse act from recycling policy/process.Current global debate is focused on questions about sustenance of any improved additional treatment level;effect of energy consumption by added treatment stage and its impact on the environmental wellness as contaminants borne wastewater is consistently released.Technological advancement/research suggests implementation of newer innovative infrastructural systems(NIIS)such as Mobbing Bed Biofilm Rector(MBBR),for wastewater effluent management which involve addition of newer wastewater treatment stages.This review addressed current pitfalls including wastewater microbiota of high epidemiological/public health relevance and affirms the need for such improvement which requires modification of ongoing institutional framework with a view to encourage implementation of NIIS for an improved effluent release.Exploiting the advances of microbial biofilming and the potentials of microbial biofueling as discussed in various section promises a future of robust environmental system,stable operational standard,release of quality effluent and sustainable management of wastewater works.Application of the aforementioned would enhance qualityWWTPs release and in-defacto reduces spread of ARB/ARGs as well as impacts both the environment wellness and public health.