مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

Forward-looking activities (FLAs) have been in the toolbox of science, technology and innovation (STI) policies for several decades. They can influence national, regional and sectoral innovation systems in various ways to a significant extent by introducing new policies and institutions (‘rules of the game’) governing the behaviour of, and interactions among, the main players, as well as creating new ‘nodes’ in these systems (e.g. new policy-making bodies, research and innovation performing organisations, or those facilitating these activities). Of these many types of potential changes this article focuses on changes induced by FLAs in the innovation policy governance sub-systems (IPGS) of the national innovation system (NIS). Our knowledge is surprisingly limited even on this subset of FLA impacts, despite several decades of practice and non-negligible analytical efforts. What we know is based on individual case descriptions or evaluation reports – rather than systematic comparative analyses.

A possible reason for this knowledge gap is the wide variety of FLA approaches and methods ranging from highly participatory to expert-based ones and from creativity-driven to evidence-based exercises.1 Further, R&D and innovation (RTDI) activities, to be influenced by FLAs, are complex in nature. Complexity applies a fortiori to innovations systems, as shown by evolutionary economics of innovation. Thus, reconsidering existing theories on innovation systems and our current knowledge on FLAs in a new, systematic way is likely to improve our understanding.

The innovation policy governance sub-system contributes to identifying and prioritising certain policy needs and problems in a given innovation system, on the one hand, and translates insights from FLAs into policy actions, on the other. Overall, analysing actual or exploring potential impacts of FLAs on national innovation systems requires handling a great deal of diversity, both with regards to FLAs and the IPGSs, in which they are embedded.