Jan Fagerberg

• DPhil
• Professor at University of Oslo

Europe is confronted by an intimidating triple challenge—economic stagnation, climate change, and a governance crisis. What is required is a fundamental transformation of the economy to a new, “green” trajectory based on rapidly diminishing emission of greenhouse gases, the authors contend. Much greater emphasis on innovation in all its forms (not...

Innovation policy has emerged as a new field of economic policy during the last few decades. This paper explores the rationales for national innovation policies, as laid out in the existing literature on the subject, and considers what the lessons and challenges for theory and practice in this area are. Innovation policy attempts to influence innov...

Nordic policy makers have long been aware of the fact that prosperity requires more than just, say, well-functioning labor markets and/or generous social and educational policies. It also requires that the capabilities of the labor force are put to productive use in a way that enhances the productivity of the nation and hence the returns for the st...

The financial crisis started in 2007-8, initially in the US, but its consequences have been felt throughout the global economy. However, its effects were far from uniform. While parts of Asia and Africa continued to grow fast, Europe experienced a large set back. This paper emphasizes three important factors: differences across countries in technol...

The European Economy is currently in a slump, the worst since the 1930s. Although this is often seen as a consequence of the financial crisis that hit the capitalist world in 2007-8, we argue that many of the problems that Europe faces today have long term roots to do with the fact that Europe consists of countries with quite different dynamics and...

FNs klimapanel har pekt på at utslippene av klimagasser må reduseres til null innen midten av dette århundre om vi skal ha håp om å unngå alvorlige skadevirkninger for natur og samfunn. Denne artikkelen analyserer prosessen fram mot nullutslipp, det globale grønne skiftet, og drivkreftene bak dette, inkludert politikkens rolle. Siden 80 prosent av...

Os tópicos tratados neste artigo dizem respeito à (necessária) transição para a sustentabilidade, às mudanças estruturais que ela acarreta e ao papel que a política (de inovação) pode desempenhar para acelerar essas mudanças. Embora seja fácil argumentar que a inovação deve desempenhar um papel importante na transição para a sustentabilidade, é mai...

This chapter focuses on the role of demand-oriented innovation policies in supporting the global green shift. Three specific cases, all from Europe, in which change has been very quick indeed, are considered: wind energy in Denmark, the German Energiewende , and electrical cars in Norway. The emphasis is placed particularly on the nature of the pol...

What determines the differences in economic performance across European regions? In addressing this question, this paper takes inspiration from two different approaches. One approach highlights the role of capability-building, of a technological or social nature, while another perspective emphasizes the potential advantages of proximity and, hence,...

This book synthesizes and interprets existing knowledge on technology upgrading failures as well as lessons from successes and failures in order to better understand the challenges of technology upgrading in emerging economies. The objective is to bring together in one volume diverse evidence regarding three major dimensions of technology upgrading...

This chapter interprets the transition to a more sustainable type of growth as a technological revolution in progress. The chapter opens with a general discussion of the role of technological revolutions and structural change and economic growth, with special emphasis on the acquisition of foreign technology, exports, and catching-up-based growth....

This chapter traces the development of scholarly interest in innovation and innovation policy in the Western world in general and in Denmark in particular, ranging from the early post-war period to the early years of the new millennium. Whereas we take a broad view of innovation and innovation policy, we do give special attention to the development...

According to Christopher Freeman technological revolutions play a key role in capitalist development. In this article, we ask to what extent more recent developments are consistent with the perspective advanced by Freeman. We focus on two issues in particular, the climate challenge and what has been dubbed “A Fourth Industrial Revolution” that is,...

Grand societal challenges, such as global warming, can only be adequately dealt with through wide-ranging changes in technology, production and consumption, and ways of life, that is, through innovation. Furthermore, change will involve a variety of sectors or parts of the economy and society, and these change processes must be sufficiently consist...

Europe today is confronted by fundamental changes in its external environment as well as internally, giving rise to several daunting policy challenges. First, there is the economic challenge manifest in slow growth or even stagnation in many countries, which, although also present in other parts of the world, is particularly severe in Europe. Secon...

The topics addressed in this paper concern the (much-needed) transition to sustainability and what role (innovation) policy can play in speeding up such changes. In their Discussion Paper Schot and Steinmueller (2018) argue that the existing theorizing and knowledge bases within the field of innovation studies are “unfit” for this task and that a t...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hypothesis that increased participation in global value chains (GVCs), such as assembly of imported parts for exports, leads to higher economic growth. The focus is particularly on the extent to which this holds for low-income countries, and the role that capability-building, i.e. development of the natio...

The aim of this article is to complement research on transformations towards sustainability by drawing upon the innovation systems (IS) framework. The IS framework already serves as a suitable and influential basis for research on processes of technological innovation and economic change. We argue that improving the capacity of an IS framework for...

The financial crisis started in 2007–2008, initially in the US, but its consequences have been felt throughout the global economy. However, its effects were far from uniform. While parts of Asia and Africa continued to grow fast, Europe experienced a large set back. This paper emphasizes three important factors: differences across countries in tech...

The capability concept is commonly used in analyses of firms; however, as this paper shows, it may also be used at the level of nations. Factor analysis is used on a broad set of relevant indicators to derive composite measures of national technological and social capabilities. The data cover 114 countries worldwide on different levels of developme...

During the last two to three decades policy-makers have increasingly became concerned about the role of innovation for economic performance and, more recently, for the solution of challenges that arise (such as the climate challenge). The view that policy may have a role in supporting innovation has become widespread, and the term innovation policy...

Europe is confronted by an intimidating triple challenge - economic stagnation, climate change, and a governance crisis. This book demonstrates how these three challenges are closely inter-related. A return to economic growth cannot come at the expense of greater risk of irreversible climate change. Instead, what is required is a reconceptualizat...

Several attempts have been made since the 1970s to collect key scholarly papers and document the progress of the field of innovation studies. The collection of papers included in this new title, most of which were published after the turn of the millennium, stands on the shoulders of these earlier volumes and seeks to provide a broad overview of re...

Europe is confronted by an intimidating triple challenge – economic stagnation, climate change, and a governance crisis. This paper demonstrates how the three challenges are closely inter-related, and discusses how they can be dealt with more effectively in order to arrive at a more economically secure, environmentally sustainable and well governed...

Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century “ has got a lot of attention, and deserves praise for its detailed presentation of data on distribution of income and wealth over the longer run. However, the title of the book, mimicking one of the greatest classics ever in economics and social science, signals that the author has greater ambitions th...

Our goal in assembling these papers is to provide a broad overview of recent progress of the research on innovation and economic change, one that spans research from innovation management and strategy within the firm to the broader “innovation systems” in which they are embedded, the effects of innovation on growth, and implications for policy. In...

This paper discusses the role of capabilities and competitiveness for the economic growth of nations. The capability concept is commonly used in analyses of firms, however, as this paper shows, it may also be used at the level of nations. Capabilities at the national level may be defined broadly as "social capabilities", as done by the economic his...

This article analyzes factors shaping technological capabilities in USA and European countries, and shows that the differences between the two continents in this respect are much smaller than commonly assumed. The analysis demonstrates a tendency toward convergence in technological capabilities for the sample as a whole between 1998 and 2008. The r...

Innovation policy has emerged as a new field of economic policy during the last few decades and it may be time to take stock of what is learnt and consider what the challenges for the theory and practice in this area are. The first section introduces the issue. Section 2 outlines the development of theoretical frameworks of innovation policies and...

There is no shortage of syntheses or overviews on specific topics within innovation studies. Much more rare are attempts to synthesize the syntheses, i.e., cover the entire area of innovation studies, emphasize the achievements that have been made, discuss the implications for policy and point to developments that require further research. The intr...

nnovation is increasingly recognized as a vitally important social and economic phenomenon worthy of serious research study. Firms are concerned about their innovation ability, particularly relative to their competitors. Politicians care about innovation, too, because of its presumed social and economic impact. However, to recognize that innovation...

This paper explores the possibility that technological capabilities, to lead to development, need to be accompanied by a broader set of “social capabilities”, reflecting not only the quality of governance but also the spread of values, beliefs and institutions that encourage members of society to actively contribute to the development process. To i...

The importance of innovation and the diverse roles that firms play in innovative activity was emphasized by Joseph Schumpeter nearly 100 years ago. As policy makers and academics have increasingly appreciated the importance of innovation, they have sought to improve how they understand and measure it. This has proven to be a deceptively difficult t...

Local research units, this article argues, play a very important role for the scientific field they belong to, for example by mobilizing financial support, offering job opportunities, attracting talented recruits, and providing adequate training. Little is known, however, about such units, at least in the fields under study here, i.e., studies of i...

Science, technology and innovation have grown in importance over the last 50 years as we have moved towards a more knowledge-intensive society (the ‘knowledge society’). A number of new research fields have emerged in an effort to understand these developments and to offer advice to decision-makers in government, industry and elsewhere. This specia...

New types of knowledge, and new ways of organising the production of it, may emerge as knowledge producers respond to the challenges posed by a changing society. This study will focus on the core knowledge of one such emerging field, namely, innovation studies, i.e. the attempt to understand the social process which enables the continuation of qual...

The term ‘national innovation systems’ surfaced for the first time in print during the late 1980s and, in the years that followed, several important contributions on this topic appeared. This paper investigates the role that this new literature plays within innovation studies and the world of science more generally and discusses the sources for its...

This special issue celebrates the work of Bengt-Åke Lundvall on his 70th birthday. In the 1980s and 1990s he was a key player among a small group of academics in the USA and Europe that developed a new, systemic approach to the study of the interactions between science, innovation, and policy. He contributed to the popularity of the approach in the...

This paper focuses on Christopher Freeman's contributions to the field of innovation studies. First, we consider his role as the creator of various organisational and intellectual frameworks crucial for the field's development, including the main research activities he initiated. Next, we examine the publications by Freeman that these activities le...

This paper analyzes factors that shape the technological capabilities of individual U.S. states and European countries, which are arguably comparable policy units. The analysis demonstrates convergence in technological capabilities from 2000 to 2007. The results indicate that social capabilities, such as a highly educated labor force, an egalitaria...

This chapter focuses on one determinant of national advantage in the Diamond framework - demand conditions - and examines empirical evidence. Although the idea that the domestic market may affect competitiveness positively is by no means a new one, the publication of The Competitive Advantage of Nations led to increasing attention on the favorable...

Traditionally many studies of knowledge in economics have focused on localized networks and intra-regional collaborations. However, the rising frequency by which firms collaborate within the context of global networks of production and innovation, the increasingly intricate divisions of labor involved and the extensive use of the Internet to facili...

Innovation is often seen as carried out by highly educated labor in R&D intensive companies with strong ties to leading centers of excellence in the scientific world. Seen from this angle innovation is a typical "first world" activity. There is, however, another way to look at innovation that goes significantly beyond this high-tech picture. In thi...

The global division of labour is changing. China, India and a number of other countries from the developing world have increased their presence in the global economy during the last decade. But many if not most developing countries fail to mimic this performance. This paper argues that the global knowledge economy presents developing countries with...

Innovation is often seen as carried out by highly educated labour in R&D intensive companies with strong ties to leading centers of excellence in the scientific world. Seen from this angle innovation is a typical "first world" activity. There is, however, another way to look at innovation that goes significantly beyond this high-tech picture. In th...

It is high time to rethink the theoretical basis for innovation policy. The purpose of this paper - drawing mainly on Schumpeterian and evolutionary thinking – is to contribute to such a discussion. Presented at the 6 Country Programme Workshop: New economic ground for innovation policy, Bilbao, 13-14 September 2009.

Innovation is, as Joseph Schumpeter once pointed out, above all a combinatory phenomenon. Success in accessing knowledge and exploiting it in a way that is beneficial for development depends on the ability to combine many different skills and resources, of which many will be external to the firm. Arguably, political choices, past as well as present...

This paper analyses the co-evolution of science, technology and innovation policy and industrial structure in a small, open, resource-based economy (Norway). The contributions of the paper are threefold. First, it develops an evolutionary and historically oriented approach to the study of the development of these policies that may have wide applica...

The concept of National Innovation Systems is well established in academic research and enthusiastically adopted by policymakers. Yet there are relatively few in-depth studies of how individual national innovation systems have evolved to their present stance. This book provides just that. The contributions of the book are threefold. First, it devel...

This introductory chapter focuses on the co-evolution of science, technology, and innovation policy and industrial structure in Norway. It develops an evolutionary and historically oriented approach to the study of the development of science, technology, and innovation policy that may have wide applicability. Moreover, it focuses on a particular ty...

The scholarly literature on innovation was for a long time not very voluminous. But as shown in the paper, this is now rapidly changing. New journals, professional associations and organizational units within universities focusing on innovation have also been formed. This paper explores the cognitive and organizational characteristics of this emerg...

Schumpeter was born in 1883 in the then Austrian empire and died in 1950 in the United States. He grew up in Vienna around the turn of the century and studied law and economics there. During the early part of his career, he tried his luck both as a businessman (director of a bank) and as a politician (minister of finance) without much success. It i...

This paper focuses on the role of capabilities in economic development. In recent years, the quality and availability of data on different aspects of development have improved, and this provides new opportunities for investigating the reasons behind the large differences in economic development. Using factor analysis on data for 25 indicators and 1...

This paper analyses the co-evolution of science, technology and innovation policy and industrial structure in a small, resource-based economy (Norway). The contributions of the paper are threefold. First, it develops an evolutionary and historically oriented approach to the study of the development of science, technology and innovation policy based...

Why do some countries perform much better than other countries? This paper outlines a synthetic framework, based on Schumpeterian logic, for analyzing this question. Four different aspects of competitiveness are identified; technology, capacity, demand and price. The contribution of the paper is particularly to highlight the three first aspects, wh...

Why do some countries catch up, while others stay poor? In recent years data on different aspects of development have improved a lot. To exploit this opportunity for more in-depth research we use factor analysis on a dataset of 25 indicators in 115 countries between 1992 and 2004. The analysis identifies four different types of "capabilities"; the...

Why do some countries, such as, for instance, Japan and some other Asian economies in the second half of the twentieth century, grow much faster, and have much better trade performance, than most other countries? Is superior trade performance, what is often termed “competitiveness”, a condition for faster growth, or is it of only minor importance c...

This paper shows that there have been important changes in how the global economic system works. A high growth regime has gradually been substituted by one of low growth. This change appears to be especially pronounced for small economies. Until the end of the 1980s, the scope for technological imitation was a significant factor in generating growt...

Presented at the GLOBELICS 2006 conference in India during 4-7 October 2006. Session I-1: Innovation: Conceptual Issues

This paper is based on work undertaken within the TEARI project, the main results of which are published as “The Oxford Handbook of Innovation” (Oxford University Press, 2004), edited by Jan Fagerberg, David C. Mowery and Richard R, Nelson.The paper presents, in a condensed form, some of the main conclusions from this work, and raises the question...

The revolution in information technology transforms not only information and its uses but, more important, knowledge and the ways we generate and manage it. Knowledge is now seen as input, output, and capital, even if imperfectly accounted for or understood. Many businesses and public agencies are convinced that knowledge can be managed in sophisti...

Although innovation is not a new topic for scholarly research, the academic literature on innovation was, for a long time, not very voluminous. However, more recently innovation has become a major focus among scholars of different backgrounds, and this change is also reflected in an increasing number of academic publications in this area. In parall...

Why do some countries catch up, while others stay poor? In recent years data on different aspects of development have improved a lot. To exploit this opportunity for more in-depth research we use factor analysis on a dataset of 25 indicators in 115 countries between 1992 and 2004. The analysis identifies four different types of “capabilities”; the...

This paper discusses the role of knowledge, technology and innovation in economic growth within the context of the “Green roads to growth” project. It summarizes the current state of the art in this area, illustrates this with selected graphs and tables based on published statistics and raises issues for discussion. The main focus is on the big shi...

Although innovation is not a new topic for scholarly research, the academic literature on innovation was, for a long time, not very voluminous. However, more recently innovation has become a major focus among scholars of different backgrounds, and this change is also reflected in an increasing number of academic publications in this area. In parall...

This paper addresses one of the oldest and most controversial issues in economics: Why do some countries succeed in catching up, while others fall behind? In recent years the quality and availability of data on different aspects of development have improved a lot. Attempting to exploit this opportunity for more in-depth research the paper starts wi...

This handbook looks to provide academics and students with a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the phenomenon of innovation. Innovation spans a number of fields within the social sciences and humanities: Management, Economics, Geography, Sociology, Policy Studies, Psychology, and History. Consequently, the rapidly increasing body of lit...

Innovation is not a new phenomenon. Arguably, it is as old as mankind itself. However, in spite of its obvious importance, innovation has not always got the scholarly attention it deserves. This is now rapidly changing, however. As shown in the paper, research on the role of innovation economic and social change has proliferated in recent years, pa...

The history of capitalism from the industrial revolution onwards is one of increasing differences in productivity and living conditions across different parts of the globe. According to historian David Landes, for instance, 250 years ago the difference in income per head between the richest and poorest country in the world was approximately 5:1, to...

The possibility that structural changes in international trade might impact countries differently has been a matter of great concern for many observers from the 1950s onwards, and the view that the specialisation pattern of a country in international trade matters for its economic performance has been widespread. This paper analyses the structural...

Why do some countries grow much faster, and have much better trade performance, than other countries? What are the crucial factors behind such differences, and what can governments do in order to improve the relative position of their economies? This paper outlines a synthetic framework, based on Schumpeterian logic, for analysing such questions. F...

This study, prepared by Jan Fagerberg, Mark Knell and Martin Srholec, is the revised version of a paper presented by the authors at the UNECE Spring Seminar on Competitiveness and Economic Growth in the ECE Region, held in Geneva, 23 February 2004.

The evidence presented in this article suggests that EU regional support has a significant and positive impact on the growth performance of European regions. Moreover, there are signs of a change in the impact of this support in the 1990s, indicating that the major reform of the structural funds undertaken in 1988 may have succeeded in making EU re...

During the last two decades we have seen a revival of interest in the works of Joseph Schumpeter and “evolutionary” ideas in economics more generally. A professional society honouring Schumpeter's name has been founded, and linked to it we have had for more than fifteen years now a professional journal devoted to this stream of thought. However, it...

Greater equality across Europe in productivity and per capita income has been one of the central goals for the European Community since the early days of European economic integration. Various policy measures have been introduced to help achieve this goal (the so-called “Structural Funds”). For a long time the regions of Europe were on a converging...

This paper discusses and outlines a perspective on economic growth based on evolutionary theorizing. Consistent with this perspective, capitalist development is shown to be a process of alternating periods of convergence and divergence, with some signs of a shift towards divergence recently. We also show that the importance of innovation for econom...

This outstanding collection charts the work of Jan Fagerberg on the relationship between technology, growth and international competitiveness. With an original introduction and a mix of previously published and unpublished material, the book covers all the main issues including: the technology gap and differences of growth and welfare; structural f...

Even though there exist large bodies of theoretical and applied work on the individual topics of ICT, mobility of knowledge and economic growth, their mutual interaction is still mostly uncharted territory. The purpose of the present paper is to contribute to a discussion of this important issue. We start by a review and discussion of the ways in w...

Digital Information Systems (DIS) - electronic systems that integrate software and hardware to enable communication and collaborative work - are increasingly used to manage global production networks (GPN). There is a widespread belief that these developments create new opportunities for organizational learning and knowledge exchange across organiz...