Interactional innovation: a neo-Schumpeterian model

Drawing on the models of entrepreneurial and monopolistic innovation formalised by J. Schumpeter, this article proposes a new model of innovation in the Schumpeterian tradition entitled the interactional innovation model. This micro-economic model, which reflects the role played on the macro-economic level by certain services in national innovation systems, links the following four elements: - the various components (phases or activities) of the innovation process in which the service provider may play a part; - the functions of the client firm that are the object of the innovation activity; - the extent to which the service provider and client are involved in innovation, i.e. the extent to which innovation is co-produced; - the cognitive forms of the service provider's role in the processing and production of knowledge. Thus the model highlights a certain number of configurations, among which the standard configuration (characterised by the absence of interaction and the mechanistic transfer of technology) is an extreme case.