Way Beyond the Cascade: Reinterpreting National Systems of Innovation

National Innovation Systems (NIS) approaches argue that flows of technology and information among people, enterprises and institutions are paramount to the innovative processes in modern societies. While NIS approaches have primarily stemmed from economic research, innovation scholars increasingly see a need to broaden this perspective by incorporating institutional accounts of national settings borne by meso- and micro-sociological preconditions of knowledge production in institutional contexts.

This workshop aims at re-framing the concept of NIS, and applying it to the case of Germany, for which an impeding system and interplay of educational, financial, economic, scientific and political institutions have been diagnosed. According to the results, we will ideally discuss the need and timeliness for a new research agenda on NIS.

26 November 2009

12 noon - 12:30 p.m.
Welcome Address and Introduction
Weert Canzler, Andreas Knie, Dagmar Simon, WZB and
Peter Weingart, University of Bielefeld

12:30 - 1 p.m.
Varieties of Innovation Systems and their
Institutional Conditions: Some Consequences of Governance Changes in Public Science Systems and Elsewhere
Richard Whitley, Institute of Innovation Research,
University of Manchester

1 - 1:30 p.m.
Neither Nation nor Systems, but Regimes of
Distributed Innovation Processes in the Wild
Werner Rammert, Institute of Sociology, Technical University of Berlin

1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
1st wrap up and discussion

2:30 - 2:50 p.m. - coffee break

2:50 - 3:20 p.m.
Legal and Regulatory Aspects of Innovation
Systems
Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, Faculty of Law, University of Hamburg

3:20 - 3:50 p.m.
Institutional Settings for 'Innovation' - National Systems
Stefan Kuhlmann, Science, Technology and Policy Studies (STePS), University of Twente

3:50 - 4:20 p.m.
Universities in Transition and Their New Roles in Innovation Systems
Jürgen Enders, Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), University of Twente

4:20 - 4:50 p.m.
Innovation Systems from a Managerial Perspective
Johannes Meier, Xi GmbH

4:50 - 5:10 p.m.
2nd wrap up and discussion

6 p.m.
WZB Guest Lecture (Room A 300)
Innovation in the Information Economy: An American Perspective
Nathan Rosenberg, Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford University

7 p.m. - evening reception

27 November 2009

10 - 10:30 a.m.
Micro Processes of Innovation
Johannes Weyer, Technical University of Dortmund

10:30 a.m. - 11 a.m.
Transfer of Knowledge at Universities
Aldo Geuna, Department of Economics, University of Torino

11 - 11:30 a.m.
Germany Applied - the Role of Academic Spin Offs
Georg Licht, Center for European Economic Research, Mannheim

11:30 a.m. - 12 noon
Search Regimes and New Arrangements Towards Scientific Community-building
Andrea Bonaccorsi, Department of Electrical Systems
and Automation, University of Pisa

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. - lunch break

1:30 - 2 p.m.
Regional Clusters of the German Innovation System
Knut Koschatzky, Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, Karlsruhe

2 - 2:30 p.m.
Transnational Dynamics in STI and STI Governance. Towards a Better Understanding of the Emerging Marble Cake Model of Governance
Jakob Edler, Institute of Innovation Research, University of Manchester

2:30 - 3 p.m.
National Innovation Systems' Research - Where are We Heading?
Nathan Rosenberg, Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford University

3 - 4 p.m.
Final discussion and next steps