Sectoral systems of innovation

MalerbaF. Sectoral systems of innovation and production. In Research Policy 31(2), 2002 pp. 247-264... 

Geels, F. W. (2004). From sectoral systems of innovation to socio-technical systems. Insights about dynamics and change from sociology and institutional theory. Research Policy, 33(611), 897-920. 

This chapter offers an overview of the role played by technical information in the development of innovation and the necessary incentives for its creation, and at the same time the implications for the pharmaceutical sector. To this end, we present the basis and the significance of the patent system, we offer an analysis of the impact of this system, and lasdy we present a reflection on the future of the system and its relationship with the pharmaceutical industry. 

Dr Frank Marscheider-Weidemann is a technical chemist and manages the business unit Fuel cells at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), Karlsruhe. His work includes technical and socioeconomic analyses. One example is the assessment of fuel cell technology impacts on tradesmen, the automobile industry and other industrial sectors. 

With regard to the location of innovation systems, however, neither the regional nor the national level (national and regional iimovation systems) could be apphed in the SubChem project due to the subject of examination. A branch approach (sectoral innovation systems) was also not an appropriate way to approach the SubChem project. The iimovation systems examined by SubChem are to be found over the entire supply chain from natural raw material supply and chemicals production to disposal and recychng (innovation systems going beyond supply chains and/or product life cycles). 

New theories or frameworks need to be developed to identify patterns within or between industry sectors and product development project types. Several attempts have been made in the past, while new challenges have also emerged. In this chapter CE has been described as an innovation system aimed at generating a production system that is capable to sustainably produce the new product envisioned. The production system is often also a complex system of collaborating companies, for example in a supply chain. Based on this view a framework has been proposed that can be used to describe CE processes and its resulting production system for farther analysis. Examples of innovation in the food industry have been presented, which show that several innovation systems may co-exist and interact. In addition, specific properties of food production systems, in particular integration and coordination, have been presented that need to be taken into account when developing a production system. 

With several technical enablers arriving in a similar two to three year time frame (National Clinical Records Spine, HL7 ebxml messaging standards, N3 broadband capability), the health sector is seeing a revolution in ICT systems similar to that which the mail order home shopping sector saw when domestic broadband services became readily available. However, the speed of innovation has outpaced the capability of standards makers to issue updated and relevant regulations to maintain the safety of these systems for patients. The health standards world is stmggling to comprehend the needs and ramifications of new e-health systems. 

If products under patent are exempted from the RP system, do the negative effects on the R D of the pharmaceutical sector disappear The exclusion of medicines with a current patent may reduce the economic erosion of the rights granted by the patent, and also the disincentive to invest in R D. But negative effects on innovation are not totally eradicated, as (a) RP increases the uncertainty on the expected return on the investment, (b) incentives for innovation will be damaged due to the fact that the R D process is a joint production process, since the overall return is reduced when RP is applied, and (c) the exclusion of patented products has proved to be only partial in some cases (for example, not excluding drags under a process patent). 

Since energy and material efficiency is dispersed over all the sectors of an economy and private households, the efficiency innovation system is characterised by ... 

Although the technical feasibility of a 2000 Watt per capita society in the second half of this century has been clarified and its economic feasibility is likely to be achievable at present energy price levels, its practical realisation remains an open question. The external cost of fossil-fuel use and many obstacles at sectoral and technology levels still hinder a fast implementation, as do a limited perception of the motivation and opportunities of possible first movers and supporting actors and a limited understanding of the innovation system. 

The Italian technologies in the gas sector are very advanced and of high interest for gas transit Countries with this spirit and in the frame of the law 212 for the Internationalisation of Enterprises, and in order to foster the links between Italy and former Soviet Union the Italian Ministry for Productive Activities co-funded the Project G.E.ORG.I.A. SYS - Gas and Electricity Organisation by Innovative Advanced System that with a duration of 18 months will provide the Georgian Partners with training, technological innovation and advanced equipment. 

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