Microsoft Word bal paper with addendum doc

II. Is ‘national innovation system’ a theoretical concept? 

It may be argued that, since it takes on different meanings in different contexts, the NIS-concept is 

not a theoretical concept. Especially the broader definition may be criticized since it might give the 

impression that anything can be included and nothing excluded in the definition. In parts of natural 

science such as physics and mathematics it is seen as crucial for scientific progress to agree on strict 

definitions and on a common terminology with as general applicability as possible. Some scholars 

in social science, especially economists, believe that the long term objective is to transform social 

science into something that equates natural science in these respects and thereby getting rid what 

they regard as loose description. 

A more realistic and fertile approach for social sciences might be to combine the aim for more 

general, more valid and more reliable knowledge about causalities with the insight that social 

science, by definition, must remain historical – as we shall see this is a point on which Schumpeter 

certainly would agree. In such an endeavour heuristic concepts and focusing devices such as 

national systems of innovation may play a major role since they offer a broad and flexible 

framework for organizing and interpreting case studies and comparative analyses.    

Actually, one of the reasons why policy makers have found the NIS-concept useful is that it 

combines a specific perspective on the economy with a certain flexibility in terms of what parts of 

the economy should be include in the analysis. From a policy maker’s point of view it is important 

that the innovation system concept can be connected to economic growth and economic 

development. As already indicated, the components of the economy related to innovation with the 

dominant impact upon economic growth and development differ over time and in space. To develop 

‘a general theory’ of innovation systems that abstracts from time and space might therefore 

undermine the utility of the concept both as an analytical tool and as a policy tool.  

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