ABSTRACT
This paper provides a comparative analysis of the relationship of science and technology research capacity and the development of education systems to industrial performance. In an exploration which maps developments over the last 150 years, the author takes as his subjects for study six countries – three with outstanding industrial achievement (Germany, Japan and the USA) and three whose growth has been less impressive (England, France and Russia/USSR). Although, the author argues, industrial performance is on the whole not linked directly either to research or education, he finds a strong association between economic development and the ways in which various policies and systems have allowed research and education to interact with industry. The analysis points up what have historically proved to be either positive or inhibiting mechanisms in the promotion of industrial innovation. The paper concludes by placing this analytical review in the context of the future development of industry–research–education interactions and a critical summary of key contemporary theories concerning the sociology of innovation.
