Goodnip - Good Practices in Nordic Innovation Policies Part 2: Innovation Policy Trends and Rationalities

The main objective of Good Practices in Nordic Innovation Policies has been to develop a survey and an analysis of Nordic innovation policy instruments that directly or indirectly are targeting small and medium sized enterprises. The project is to provide Nordic policy makers with information to be used in the development of new or adjusted policy instruments on a national or Nordic level. The project unites researchers from the five Nordic countries: Norway, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden. The study is coordinated by Norwegian STEP, a part of SINTEF Industrial Management. The other participants are NUTEK and VINNOVA of Sweden, VTT of Finland, Denmark's Technological University and the Icelandic research council RANNIS. Innovation policy trends and rationalities The main chapter of this report gives a thorough presentation a comparison of contemporary innovation policies and policy instruments in the Nordic countries, historically and contemporary. The chapter ends up with several policy recommendations. A separate chapter discusses how policy development actually takes place in ministries and agencies, and introduces the concept of rationalities – i.e. common mental maps or frameworks of understanding that underpins policy development. This chapter also examine policy learning practices in the Nordic countries and gives some concrete advice on how to improve such learning processes. The report then goes on to a presentation of relevant innovation policy statistics and indicators. This is more than a listing of numbers and tables, however. The chapter uses these figures in order to gain a better understanding of the current status of innovation and R&D in the Nordic countries, and tries to analyse to what extent there is a connection between this status and current innovation policies. The final chapter contains more general theoretical reflections on innovation theory and innovation policy development. It discusses the interaction between innovation research and innovation policy as well as various rationales for innovation policy development. In an appendix the reader will find national rapports on the historical background for innovation policies in the Nordic countries. For more information on GoodNIP, see the GoodNIP Web site at http://www.step.no/goodnip