Emerging trends in theorizing and use of the concept of innovation: what implication for development?

The field of innovation studies is in a crisis: it is a victim of its success. This is because – along with the increasing popularity and use – the clarity of the innovation concept seems to be deflated. More importantly, this field also suffers a methodological crisis. Specifically, there seems to be an increased tendency to turn around the normal relationship between theory, policy and practice: rather than deriving policies from empirically informed theories, there are emerging tendencies for abstract policy ideas to inform theory instead. This paper shows how the work on so-called ‘social innovation’ and on ‘transformative innovation policy’ is leading these tendencies. It argues that these tendencies that are inconsistent with scientific principles are detrimental to the poor and technology-constrained countries. Such countries need evidence-informed innovation policy derived from empirically informed theoretical propositions to build their technological capabilities and spur social and economic development. But the new approaches seem to be weakening the ability of innovation studies to inform policy which is effective for actions in developing countries. The diffusion of these new frameworks is kicking away the ladder. This article thus calls upon innovation and development scholars to put things right by revisiting the emerging models.