Innovation Policy

Course goals

• can compare and discuss different theories about the innovation process and its relation to economic growth en development;
• can identify and discuss the main problems and issues that emerge in the innovation process in the economy;
• can compare and discuss the different perspectives on public intervention to foster innovation;
• can discuss the most important forms of policy instruments used for fostering specific dimensions of the innovation process;
• can identify the most important aspects of science/ industrial / competitiveness / innovation policies at the international, national and regional levels, and discuss how these affect the innovative behaviour and the innovative performance of firms;
• has knowledge of topical innovation policy;
• can formulate policy trajectories;
• can cooperate with students and experts from the field.

Content

This course provides insights into how innovation processes work and what the role and responsibility of the government is for the functioning of innovation systems. Different facets of innovation are discussed, with a focus on the interactions of actors, in the creation of ideas, their application in innovations, and their diffusion. This course also builds bridges between different disciplines in order to come to a better understanding of innovation. The rationales and relevance of science/ industrial / competitiveness / innovation policies will be discussed.

The course starts with an introduction into the meaning of innovation, its economic significance, the roots and development of innovation policy, and a macroeconomic analysis of the economic importance of innovation. Next, issues of knowledge and learning, and the main elements of different types of innovation systems are discussed. The policy implications of all these insights are central in this course. Some examples of major policy issues addressed in this course are:

• How can governments address grand societal challenges through mission oriented research?
• What are the merits and drawbacks of targeted industrial policies?
• How can openness for new entrants be guaranteed, and how can constraints with market and system failures be dealt with? How can this be done while taking into account government failures?
• How can the strengths of the local be combined with the need for openness to the non-local and the global, in organisations, networks, regions, and countries?
• What dilemma's do governments face when funding research?

Key concepts:
Innovation, Innovation policy, market failure, system failure, mission oriented research, public goods, cognitive distance, entrepreneurship, industrial policy, innovation systems, intellectual property, science policy, invention, knowledge spillovers, knowledge transfer, learning, markets, productivity, public interests, public procurement, R&D, research policy, venture capital.

This course contains an Honours component.