ABSTRACT
Periods of rapid technological change are characterized by extreme economic uncertainty in which the frontier of technological possibilities is constantly changing. Past technological paradigms or trajectories no longer serve as adequate guideposts in the emerging economic and technological environment. Such periods place a high premium on the ability to acquire, absorb and diffuse relevant scientific and technological information throughout the appropriate educational, economic and political institutions. As a consequence, these periods accentuate the importance of a society’s collective ability to search for, and apply, relevant pieces of knowledge. The role of institutions, both national and regional, thus assumes a position of vital importance in these periods of rapid technological and economic change. The extent to which the regional or national capacity for scientific learning and technological adaptation is supported or weakened by its institutional structure is thus critical to its success in a period of rapid economic transformation.
