ABSTRACT
Research and technology organizations (RTOs) play many important roles in innovation ecosystems. However, existing RTO benchmarking studies fail to fully capture the dynamic space that these intermediaries inhabit, especially in developing economies. This chapter argues that RTOs have been too narrowly construed in the literature on innovation systems, and offers a typology that distills the main roles that these innovation intermediaries play. The ideal types proposed are research utilities, knowledge creators, stakeholder conveners, and R&D contractors. Research utilities depend heavily on public funding to support firms of all sizes. On the other end of the spectrum, R&D contractors receive little public funding, operate in line with industry’s short-term needs, and usually work with large companies. Knowledge creators and stakeholder conveners exist between these two endpoints, depending on the state for guaranteed and competitive funding while still operating in line with industry needs. Many of the empirical insights that form the foundation of this typology are derived from research into intermediaries in Brazil. The typology itself has implications for the coherence and strength of Brazil’s innovation ecosystem.
