Interaction and Networking

Innovation systems cannot be conceptualized without understanding the interactions between different actors in the system. These interactions take many different forms. The scholarly literature has studied them with broad or narrow notions. This chapter aims at providing an encompassing view of these different phenomena, putting them directly into the theoretical context of the innovation systems approach. This is done not only for the sake of conceptual clarification, but above all for identifying the concrete obstacles and deficiencies associated with these interactions that might plague the innovation system. This serves as the basis for distinguishing and classifying the wide diversity of network-oriented innovation policy instruments that governments have deployed through time. Just as in other chapters of this book, the unintended negative consequences created by the application of these instruments are also examined. Finally, the chapter puts forward a set of criteria for the design and redesign of these instruments.