ABSTRACT
The recent debate on innovation systems takes place at the crossroads between two types of research. The first is the descriptive analysis of innovation systems, which relates both to growth accounting and to the do-it-yourself economics of government agencies and international organizations. This type of research tries to explain rate and direction of innovation across countries and thereby partly answer the question of why growth rates differ. By including some of the results of modern innovation theory, this research has become increasingly ambitious; presently it is looking for a systematic framework that can promote its further development (see part 5 in Dosi et al., 1988). More and more evolutionary economic concepts are introduced in the study of innovation systems and in policy documents - like the Green Paper on Innovation by the Commission of the European Union.
