No 2007/9 Innovation System Policies in Less Successful Developing countries

The case of Thailand

Abstract

The issue of the rationale for public intervention under the systems of innovation perspective has recently received an increasing attention among scholars and practitioners. However, with few exceptions, this literature has been based on the analysis of innovation policies and innovation systems in the industrialized countries neglecting almost completely the specific policy dilemmas arising from weak and fragmented innovation systems that characterize developing countries. In the last few years, a growing number of developing countries have adopted the system of innovation approach officially in their innovation policy. Yet, there has not been an adequate attempt to systematically analyze how (and if) this has been done in practice. This paper attempts to shed some light on this issue by analyzing the innovation policy of Thailand. The paper suggests that while innovation system approach might have been officially adopted by a government, the practice follows old innovation paradigms and hardly addresses the profound systemic problems of the Thai innovation system.