Taking Cooperation Seriously: Interactions in Innovation and Development in the National System of Innovation in Germany

Abstract

In the recent years, networks of cooperation among the different actors of National Systems of Innovation (NSI) and its territorial expression (clusters) has become one of the focus of research on technological innovation. The systemic approach to the networks allows leaving aside any monocausal or lineal explanation of innovation. Those approaches are not suitable tools to understand the growing complexity of technological advances. On the other hand, there is not enough empirical research to help better understand the real importance and precise role of interaction networks in the framework of a NSI. This paper takes the case of Germany as a starting point. The author submits evidence indicating that the three key elements explaining the still advantageous position of Germany in the global race for innovation are: a strong base of innovative enterprises, differentiated technical training of the highest level, as well as applied research adjusted to the needs of the private sector. These three elements have come to build along many decades the core of German industrial system. Cooperation in R&D strictu sensu, as a set of interactions among enterprises and between enterprises and institutions, is far from being a common  phenomenon. This keeps being just a function, complementary to the own innovative efforts from the firms, being just one among many other options available to the enterprises in order to get external supply of technological knowledge.