The paper analyzes the contribution of public policy to the open innovation process. Innovation p... more The paper analyzes the contribution of public policy to the open innovation process. Innovation processes are dynamic and global. Actors must adapt their strategies to new contexts, including the increasingly knowledge-based global competition. They must reconcile the need for speed in commercial exploitation of new products in order to ensure continuous investments with long lead-time in the development of radical innovation capabilities. For the world leaders in their industries, suppliers are becoming ever more important not only as sources but also contributors to innovation, which requires complementary and open interaction between the private sector and public research. The trend is toward open innovation processes, that make possible the overcoming of geographic, institutional and disciplinary barriers. It discusses new approaches to innovation management in the framework of the "open innovation paradigm," which include the following: an output-, or result-, orienta...
The purpose of the case study is to understand the impact of Intel’s technologies in the field of... more The purpose of the case study is to understand the impact of Intel’s technologies in the field of sports. It describes Intel’s journey starting from entering the Virtual Reality domain to using this new technology for improving a viewer’s experience.
The term “Silicon Forest” refers to the Portland city and its metropolitan area. According to Wik... more The term “Silicon Forest” refers to the Portland city and its metropolitan area. According to Wikipedia the definition is “...nickname for the cluster of high-tech companies located in the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon, and most frequently refers to the industrial corridor between Beaverton and Hillsboro in northwest Oregon...” The nickname contains 2 words, silicon and forest. “Silicon” comes from the high concentration of silicon labs and companies related with microchips in the area. In order to do not imitate the “Silicon Valley” nickname, but with the clear roots on this nickname, the second word from the famous hub in California is changed to “Forest”, looking into the West of Oregon abundance of forest. As a result, the nickname “Silicon Forest” tries to compress on it the dominant technology in the area and the landscape peculiarity in Oregon. The area has been slowly displacing lumber industry as a main industry and replacing it by high-tech firms that nowadays contribute to 1/5 of the State wealth. For all these reasons, Oregon State has a clear debt to high-tech industry and it must seriously commit to its future sustainability, which is undoubtedly related with Oregon future. But growth must not be done at any price and impact in the non-high-tech members of the society has to be consider too. This research is looking for a wider perspective than Oregon and high-tech relationship only, adding the impact of this relationship in other areas like housing market, political decisions, unemployment or transportation. And beyond, looking for the potential links between these external factors and the reasons that have prevented Oregon to become a Tier-1 technological hub
Abstract Using digital technologies for technology roadmapping has the advantage of significantly... more Abstract Using digital technologies for technology roadmapping has the advantage of significantly extending the range of information sources used for the roadmap. Thus, a more solid evidence-based foundation for the integrated roadmap is provided, and the risk of biased individual judgements limited. The main challenge of extending the information base lies in processing information and integrating into aggregate indicators for the final roadmap. The revised methodology was pilot tested for a roadmap on the development of artificial intelligence technologies and their applications in a large Russian company. The roadmap is being already used by a large state-owned Russian corporation for strategic and investment decision making and project management including investment priority-setting, identification of technological forks and strategic alternatives, revelation of areas of presence and lack of competence, risk assessment, identification of potential consortia and the potential tasks for them, project expertise, and proactive project search.
Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 2018
This special issue examines corporate foresight and innovation management in contemporary organis... more This special issue examines corporate foresight and innovation management in contemporary organising. Contributing to a growing body of research on the other-centeredness and interconnectedness of foresight and innovation, the papers in the issue examine the practice of corporate foresight, how it may lead to the identification of opportunities for innovation, and the complex processes and conditions that enable (or impede) the capture of value from corporate foresight. Representing an interesting mix of empirical, conceptual, qualitative, and quantitative methodologies, the papers offer innovative theorising to extend our understanding of the logics of corporate foresight, their interactive effects and contribution to innovation management. Emphasising anticipation and prescience, corporate foresight is an organising practice involving the creative identification, exploration, and exploitation of opportunities and limits otherwise glossed over by competitors. In fast moving business environments characterised by ambiguity and change, the practice of corporate foresight has become an annual ritual in many forward looking firms (Hodgkinson and Healey 2008; Vecchiato 2015). Following the logic that more of it will lead to companies finding a path that leads to the future, the practice is increasingly conceptualised as a learning process rather than an episodic intervention tool (Bootz 2010; Cunha, Palma, and da Costa 2006). In this regard, a plethora of firms now treat corporate foresight as an everyday practice of combining relevant past, present and future insights into meaningful, future-oriented knowledge (Wright and Cairns 2011; Sarpong and Maclean 2016). This shift has not only altered how firms views and organise in the present to compete in the future. It has led to firms investing in a variety of corporate foresight methodologies ranging from scenario planning, road mapping, competitive intelligence, and business war gaming (Rohrbeck, Battistella, and Huizingh 2015; Daheim and Uerz 2008). Developed and advertised by practitioners, consultants, and researchers as a strategic process of handling the effect and response uncertainty of technology and social drivers of change (Rohrbeck and Gemünden 2011; Vecchiato and Roveda 2010), decision makers are frequently called upon to integrate these exercises into their organisational processes. In response, many organisations now support and conduct scenario planning but continue to struggle to measure their effectiveness or know what kind of future they sometimes want for themselves (Mietzner and Reger 2005). An expansive view of the corporate foresight 'playing field' now points to inter-organisational collaboration as a strategic means to managing the future. This new turn to participatory foresight projects in clusters and innovation networks seek to mobilise and harness the differential visions of potential competitors and partners to detecting discontinuous changes and interpreting their
ABSTRACT The article highlights the challenges of benchmarking the science, technology and innova... more ABSTRACT The article highlights the challenges of benchmarking the science, technology and innovation (STI) policy mix between countries. A benchmarking concept is developed to compare policies across countries, which takes account of country structural features, the way policies are embedded in the national STI policy context and the country’s development stage. We focus on policies aiming at fostering technology transfer and commercialisation of public research in selected OECD and emerging economies, drawing on the recent EC/OECD STI Outlook Policy database. Countries combine instruments across different policy domains, including business innovation, entrepreneurship and industrial policies in accordance with their public research orientation and business absorptive capacities. Policy interventions focus on upstream and/or downstream stages of knowledge transfer as attention is given to adjusting the supply of public research to social and economic needs or to encouraging business demand for public research results. Transfer and commercialisation of public research is increasingly integrated into STI policy governance. Policy sets for knowledge transfer tend to be denser in more advanced STI systems.
The paper analyses problems associated with technologies classification for the purposes of futur... more The paper analyses problems associated with technologies classification for the purposes of futures studies, in order to ensure definitive inclusion of technologies in specific classes/types when conventional approaches to classification are applied. The evolution of classification approaches in the scope of science philosophy is shortly reviewed, together with the latest research on expert-based and computerised (algorithmic) classification and methodological dilemmas related to hierarchical aggregation of technological and production processes are analysed. Common problems with classifying technologies and industries frequently encountered in the age of converging technologies are examined, using the agricultural sector and related industries as an example. A case study of computerised classification of agricultural technologies based on clustering algorithms is presented, with a brief analysis of the potential and limitations of the methodology. For doing so a two-stage approach to classifying technologies is suggested, based on distinguishing between platform (multipurpose) and industry-specific technologies. An adaptive approach to analysing technological structures is proposed, based on many-to-many relationships and fuzzy logic principles.
Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) have been considered as the future vision for the automotive ... more Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) have been considered as the future vision for the automotive industry. An increasing number of concepts and prototypes have been introduced in the last decade. In parallel with the technological development, recent discussions about global warming and climate change bring public support for emission free vehicles. Despite of the advancements and support, the speed of introduction of FCEVs is still not at the desirable levels. From a transition management perspective, the present paper seeks to answer the underlying factors behind the implementation of the FCEVs. The discussion goes beyond a technical one to cover broad factors and interests of stakeholders with an 'eagle-eye view'. Following a discussion the key drivers of change for the FCEV sector and wild cards with disruptive effects, the paper proposes a strategic roadmap template to set an agenda for a successful transition towards FCEVs.
This paper gives an overview of the impact of the current digital evolution of S&T systems, in pa... more This paper gives an overview of the impact of the current digital evolution of S&T systems, in particular on STI policies and research skills development. Within this context digitalization demonstrates strong impact on human capital and tangible assets (infrastructures and information processing tools etc.) by means of enhancing sources of new knowledge. Hence, challenges arise on the useful and proper utilization of numerous opportunities which emerged from digitalization. What are the new challenges for S&T systems caused by digitalization and what mechanisms could be implemented for system adaptation to them? What are the new research skills that are a high priority to acquire both by individuals and system as a whole? The paper argues that STI policy thus far hasn't demonstrated sufficient responses to the changing requirements on researcher skills but remains at the infrastructural discussion.
Competencies and skills of the doctorate holders are frequently perceived a guarantee for profess... more Competencies and skills of the doctorate holders are frequently perceived a guarantee for professional careers in many occupations and a solid contribution to scientific excellence, country innovation capability, and economic and societal development. The assumption that doctorate holders are easily integrated in economic endeavors proves wrong which calls for a revision of the widespread thinking about this extremely specialized and trained people. Ongoing debates neglect the fact that doctoral degrees are academic degrees which testify degree holder's competence in research which is to be viewed a profession with specific skills. Innovation per se is hardly included in this profession. Also, PhDs are expected to engage in teaching but against their teaching duties they are not obliged to receive education or training of teaching skills. This is even more remarkable since teachers at primary and secondary level are always educated in teaching methods but tertiary level teachers are not. The essay argues that PhDs should be viewed as research professionals and research as a profession. This requires a change in the perception of both by policy makers but does not say that there is an urgent need for policy intervention in regulating the competencies and skills which are included in the respective professional standards.
Deploying Foresight for Policy and Strategy Makers, 2016
Technology diffusion is a central element in the increasing innovation and technology competition... more Technology diffusion is a central element in the increasing innovation and technology competition by companies and countries. Accordingly policy makers are extending their understanding of science, technology and innovation policy beyond the initial support of technology and innovation development and begin to focus more on the actual application hence diffusion potential of innovations. The history of fuel cells is a prominent example which shows how long time a technology might need to diffuse into broad application. The reasons for delayed diffusion and market penetration are manifold as the example shows. Besides the purely technology induced problems the technology is confronted with resistance by a broader stakeholder community. For producers, hence innovators, it’s important to learn the obvious but also the hidden agendas of stakeholders at early stages of technology development already.
Eine technische Invention ist die erstmalige Realisierung eines technischen Problems, die aus For... more Eine technische Invention ist die erstmalige Realisierung eines technischen Problems, die aus Forschungs- und Entwicklungsaktivitaten resultieren kann (Pleschak 1996, S. 6; Specht 1996, S. 15). Zur Innovation wird die Invention erst, wenn sie auf dem Markt eingefuhrt bzw. in einem Produktionsprozes eingesetzt wird. In der Praxis der Innovationstatigkeit erweist sich die Uberfuhrung von Wissen und Inventionen in Anwendungen als Kernproblem. Dies ist vor allem auf folgende Ursachen zuruckzufuhren:
This paper is devoted to the analysis of evolution of innovation concepts, aspects and types. Fir... more This paper is devoted to the analysis of evolution of innovation concepts, aspects and types. First emergence and evolution of different aspects and concepts of innovation are analyzed, and then the development of innovation concepts from a historical perspective and finally an overview of the types of innovation classifications developed in the literature are given. Complementary the different definitions of innovation are described and analyzed in detail. The main goal of the article is to identify, describe and visualize the development trend of innovation conceptualization and understanding over time.
International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems, 2012
ABSTRACT During the last decade, the role and meaning of research and technology organisations (R... more ABSTRACT During the last decade, the role and meaning of research and technology organisations (RTOs) and their contribution to the innovation potential of countries has been questioned. In this paper, RTOs are understood as organisations with significant core government funding (25% or greater) which supply services to firms individually or collectively in support of scientific and technological innovation and which devote much of their capability (50% or more of their labour) to remaining integrated with the science base (Hales, 2001). Transitional economies like Russia face substantial challenges with national and regional innovation policies for supporting and enabling knowledge transfer. In this context, RTOs often maintain obsolete behavioural schemes of non-market public institutions isolated from the real economic sector. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate and explain some unexpected knowledge transfer phenomena crucial for efficient regional innovation policies using Russian RTOs as example.
Deploying Foresight for Policy and Strategy Makers, 2016
Foresight has gained much attention as a tool for developing and informing science, technology an... more Foresight has gained much attention as a tool for developing and informing science, technology and innovation policy and company strategies. It is frequently used for detecting not only potential development paths of technologies but also possible economic and societal changes; and for identifying challenges that nations, societies and companies might face in the future. Raising awareness within the respective communities of trends and challenges is critically important—and the biggest challenge is how we can develop measures to meet these anticipated challenges. Paradoxically, perhaps, it may be more helpful for creating and implementing successful measures if these are elaborated by thinking about grasping opportunities, rather than framing them in terms of threats that have to be responded to. Accordingly there is a need to change the mindsets in science, technology and innovation policy making—and to engender solution and opportunity orientation among scientists and engineers.
The paper analyzes the contribution of public policy to the open innovation process. Innovation p... more The paper analyzes the contribution of public policy to the open innovation process. Innovation processes are dynamic and global. Actors must adapt their strategies to new contexts, including the increasingly knowledge-based global competition. They must reconcile the need for speed in commercial exploitation of new products in order to ensure continuous investments with long lead-time in the development of radical innovation capabilities. For the world leaders in their industries, suppliers are becoming ever more important not only as sources but also contributors to innovation, which requires complementary and open interaction between the private sector and public research. The trend is toward open innovation processes, that make possible the overcoming of geographic, institutional and disciplinary barriers. It discusses new approaches to innovation management in the framework of the "open innovation paradigm," which include the following: an output-, or result-, orienta...
The purpose of the case study is to understand the impact of Intel’s technologies in the field of... more The purpose of the case study is to understand the impact of Intel’s technologies in the field of sports. It describes Intel’s journey starting from entering the Virtual Reality domain to using this new technology for improving a viewer’s experience.
The term “Silicon Forest” refers to the Portland city and its metropolitan area. According to Wik... more The term “Silicon Forest” refers to the Portland city and its metropolitan area. According to Wikipedia the definition is “...nickname for the cluster of high-tech companies located in the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon, and most frequently refers to the industrial corridor between Beaverton and Hillsboro in northwest Oregon...” The nickname contains 2 words, silicon and forest. “Silicon” comes from the high concentration of silicon labs and companies related with microchips in the area. In order to do not imitate the “Silicon Valley” nickname, but with the clear roots on this nickname, the second word from the famous hub in California is changed to “Forest”, looking into the West of Oregon abundance of forest. As a result, the nickname “Silicon Forest” tries to compress on it the dominant technology in the area and the landscape peculiarity in Oregon. The area has been slowly displacing lumber industry as a main industry and replacing it by high-tech firms that nowadays contribute to 1/5 of the State wealth. For all these reasons, Oregon State has a clear debt to high-tech industry and it must seriously commit to its future sustainability, which is undoubtedly related with Oregon future. But growth must not be done at any price and impact in the non-high-tech members of the society has to be consider too. This research is looking for a wider perspective than Oregon and high-tech relationship only, adding the impact of this relationship in other areas like housing market, political decisions, unemployment or transportation. And beyond, looking for the potential links between these external factors and the reasons that have prevented Oregon to become a Tier-1 technological hub
Abstract Using digital technologies for technology roadmapping has the advantage of significantly... more Abstract Using digital technologies for technology roadmapping has the advantage of significantly extending the range of information sources used for the roadmap. Thus, a more solid evidence-based foundation for the integrated roadmap is provided, and the risk of biased individual judgements limited. The main challenge of extending the information base lies in processing information and integrating into aggregate indicators for the final roadmap. The revised methodology was pilot tested for a roadmap on the development of artificial intelligence technologies and their applications in a large Russian company. The roadmap is being already used by a large state-owned Russian corporation for strategic and investment decision making and project management including investment priority-setting, identification of technological forks and strategic alternatives, revelation of areas of presence and lack of competence, risk assessment, identification of potential consortia and the potential tasks for them, project expertise, and proactive project search.
Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 2018
This special issue examines corporate foresight and innovation management in contemporary organis... more This special issue examines corporate foresight and innovation management in contemporary organising. Contributing to a growing body of research on the other-centeredness and interconnectedness of foresight and innovation, the papers in the issue examine the practice of corporate foresight, how it may lead to the identification of opportunities for innovation, and the complex processes and conditions that enable (or impede) the capture of value from corporate foresight. Representing an interesting mix of empirical, conceptual, qualitative, and quantitative methodologies, the papers offer innovative theorising to extend our understanding of the logics of corporate foresight, their interactive effects and contribution to innovation management. Emphasising anticipation and prescience, corporate foresight is an organising practice involving the creative identification, exploration, and exploitation of opportunities and limits otherwise glossed over by competitors. In fast moving business environments characterised by ambiguity and change, the practice of corporate foresight has become an annual ritual in many forward looking firms (Hodgkinson and Healey 2008; Vecchiato 2015). Following the logic that more of it will lead to companies finding a path that leads to the future, the practice is increasingly conceptualised as a learning process rather than an episodic intervention tool (Bootz 2010; Cunha, Palma, and da Costa 2006). In this regard, a plethora of firms now treat corporate foresight as an everyday practice of combining relevant past, present and future insights into meaningful, future-oriented knowledge (Wright and Cairns 2011; Sarpong and Maclean 2016). This shift has not only altered how firms views and organise in the present to compete in the future. It has led to firms investing in a variety of corporate foresight methodologies ranging from scenario planning, road mapping, competitive intelligence, and business war gaming (Rohrbeck, Battistella, and Huizingh 2015; Daheim and Uerz 2008). Developed and advertised by practitioners, consultants, and researchers as a strategic process of handling the effect and response uncertainty of technology and social drivers of change (Rohrbeck and Gemünden 2011; Vecchiato and Roveda 2010), decision makers are frequently called upon to integrate these exercises into their organisational processes. In response, many organisations now support and conduct scenario planning but continue to struggle to measure their effectiveness or know what kind of future they sometimes want for themselves (Mietzner and Reger 2005). An expansive view of the corporate foresight 'playing field' now points to inter-organisational collaboration as a strategic means to managing the future. This new turn to participatory foresight projects in clusters and innovation networks seek to mobilise and harness the differential visions of potential competitors and partners to detecting discontinuous changes and interpreting their
ABSTRACT The article highlights the challenges of benchmarking the science, technology and innova... more ABSTRACT The article highlights the challenges of benchmarking the science, technology and innovation (STI) policy mix between countries. A benchmarking concept is developed to compare policies across countries, which takes account of country structural features, the way policies are embedded in the national STI policy context and the country’s development stage. We focus on policies aiming at fostering technology transfer and commercialisation of public research in selected OECD and emerging economies, drawing on the recent EC/OECD STI Outlook Policy database. Countries combine instruments across different policy domains, including business innovation, entrepreneurship and industrial policies in accordance with their public research orientation and business absorptive capacities. Policy interventions focus on upstream and/or downstream stages of knowledge transfer as attention is given to adjusting the supply of public research to social and economic needs or to encouraging business demand for public research results. Transfer and commercialisation of public research is increasingly integrated into STI policy governance. Policy sets for knowledge transfer tend to be denser in more advanced STI systems.
The paper analyses problems associated with technologies classification for the purposes of futur... more The paper analyses problems associated with technologies classification for the purposes of futures studies, in order to ensure definitive inclusion of technologies in specific classes/types when conventional approaches to classification are applied. The evolution of classification approaches in the scope of science philosophy is shortly reviewed, together with the latest research on expert-based and computerised (algorithmic) classification and methodological dilemmas related to hierarchical aggregation of technological and production processes are analysed. Common problems with classifying technologies and industries frequently encountered in the age of converging technologies are examined, using the agricultural sector and related industries as an example. A case study of computerised classification of agricultural technologies based on clustering algorithms is presented, with a brief analysis of the potential and limitations of the methodology. For doing so a two-stage approach to classifying technologies is suggested, based on distinguishing between platform (multipurpose) and industry-specific technologies. An adaptive approach to analysing technological structures is proposed, based on many-to-many relationships and fuzzy logic principles.
Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) have been considered as the future vision for the automotive ... more Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) have been considered as the future vision for the automotive industry. An increasing number of concepts and prototypes have been introduced in the last decade. In parallel with the technological development, recent discussions about global warming and climate change bring public support for emission free vehicles. Despite of the advancements and support, the speed of introduction of FCEVs is still not at the desirable levels. From a transition management perspective, the present paper seeks to answer the underlying factors behind the implementation of the FCEVs. The discussion goes beyond a technical one to cover broad factors and interests of stakeholders with an 'eagle-eye view'. Following a discussion the key drivers of change for the FCEV sector and wild cards with disruptive effects, the paper proposes a strategic roadmap template to set an agenda for a successful transition towards FCEVs.
This paper gives an overview of the impact of the current digital evolution of S&T systems, in pa... more This paper gives an overview of the impact of the current digital evolution of S&T systems, in particular on STI policies and research skills development. Within this context digitalization demonstrates strong impact on human capital and tangible assets (infrastructures and information processing tools etc.) by means of enhancing sources of new knowledge. Hence, challenges arise on the useful and proper utilization of numerous opportunities which emerged from digitalization. What are the new challenges for S&T systems caused by digitalization and what mechanisms could be implemented for system adaptation to them? What are the new research skills that are a high priority to acquire both by individuals and system as a whole? The paper argues that STI policy thus far hasn't demonstrated sufficient responses to the changing requirements on researcher skills but remains at the infrastructural discussion.
Competencies and skills of the doctorate holders are frequently perceived a guarantee for profess... more Competencies and skills of the doctorate holders are frequently perceived a guarantee for professional careers in many occupations and a solid contribution to scientific excellence, country innovation capability, and economic and societal development. The assumption that doctorate holders are easily integrated in economic endeavors proves wrong which calls for a revision of the widespread thinking about this extremely specialized and trained people. Ongoing debates neglect the fact that doctoral degrees are academic degrees which testify degree holder's competence in research which is to be viewed a profession with specific skills. Innovation per se is hardly included in this profession. Also, PhDs are expected to engage in teaching but against their teaching duties they are not obliged to receive education or training of teaching skills. This is even more remarkable since teachers at primary and secondary level are always educated in teaching methods but tertiary level teachers are not. The essay argues that PhDs should be viewed as research professionals and research as a profession. This requires a change in the perception of both by policy makers but does not say that there is an urgent need for policy intervention in regulating the competencies and skills which are included in the respective professional standards.
Deploying Foresight for Policy and Strategy Makers, 2016
Technology diffusion is a central element in the increasing innovation and technology competition... more Technology diffusion is a central element in the increasing innovation and technology competition by companies and countries. Accordingly policy makers are extending their understanding of science, technology and innovation policy beyond the initial support of technology and innovation development and begin to focus more on the actual application hence diffusion potential of innovations. The history of fuel cells is a prominent example which shows how long time a technology might need to diffuse into broad application. The reasons for delayed diffusion and market penetration are manifold as the example shows. Besides the purely technology induced problems the technology is confronted with resistance by a broader stakeholder community. For producers, hence innovators, it’s important to learn the obvious but also the hidden agendas of stakeholders at early stages of technology development already.
Eine technische Invention ist die erstmalige Realisierung eines technischen Problems, die aus For... more Eine technische Invention ist die erstmalige Realisierung eines technischen Problems, die aus Forschungs- und Entwicklungsaktivitaten resultieren kann (Pleschak 1996, S. 6; Specht 1996, S. 15). Zur Innovation wird die Invention erst, wenn sie auf dem Markt eingefuhrt bzw. in einem Produktionsprozes eingesetzt wird. In der Praxis der Innovationstatigkeit erweist sich die Uberfuhrung von Wissen und Inventionen in Anwendungen als Kernproblem. Dies ist vor allem auf folgende Ursachen zuruckzufuhren:
This paper is devoted to the analysis of evolution of innovation concepts, aspects and types. Fir... more This paper is devoted to the analysis of evolution of innovation concepts, aspects and types. First emergence and evolution of different aspects and concepts of innovation are analyzed, and then the development of innovation concepts from a historical perspective and finally an overview of the types of innovation classifications developed in the literature are given. Complementary the different definitions of innovation are described and analyzed in detail. The main goal of the article is to identify, describe and visualize the development trend of innovation conceptualization and understanding over time.
International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems, 2012
ABSTRACT During the last decade, the role and meaning of research and technology organisations (R... more ABSTRACT During the last decade, the role and meaning of research and technology organisations (RTOs) and their contribution to the innovation potential of countries has been questioned. In this paper, RTOs are understood as organisations with significant core government funding (25% or greater) which supply services to firms individually or collectively in support of scientific and technological innovation and which devote much of their capability (50% or more of their labour) to remaining integrated with the science base (Hales, 2001). Transitional economies like Russia face substantial challenges with national and regional innovation policies for supporting and enabling knowledge transfer. In this context, RTOs often maintain obsolete behavioural schemes of non-market public institutions isolated from the real economic sector. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate and explain some unexpected knowledge transfer phenomena crucial for efficient regional innovation policies using Russian RTOs as example.
Deploying Foresight for Policy and Strategy Makers, 2016
Foresight has gained much attention as a tool for developing and informing science, technology an... more Foresight has gained much attention as a tool for developing and informing science, technology and innovation policy and company strategies. It is frequently used for detecting not only potential development paths of technologies but also possible economic and societal changes; and for identifying challenges that nations, societies and companies might face in the future. Raising awareness within the respective communities of trends and challenges is critically important—and the biggest challenge is how we can develop measures to meet these anticipated challenges. Paradoxically, perhaps, it may be more helpful for creating and implementing successful measures if these are elaborated by thinking about grasping opportunities, rather than framing them in terms of threats that have to be responded to. Accordingly there is a need to change the mindsets in science, technology and innovation policy making—and to engender solution and opportunity orientation among scientists and engineers.
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Papers by Dirk Meissner