Innovation and technological change show different rates, types and trajectories depending on the sector in which they take place. Agents and institutions of a sector all exert a major influence on innovation. With contributions from nineteen experts in their field, this book proposes the framework of the 'sectoral systems of innovation' to analyse the innovation process, the factors affecting innovation, the relationship between innovation and industry dynamics, the changing boundaries and transformation of sectors, and the determinants of the international performance of firms and countries in different sectors. Innovation in a sector is considered to be affected by three groups of variables: knowledge and technologies; actors and networks; and institutions. In addition to the general framework, this book examines innovation in six major sectors in Europe including pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, telecommunications equipment and services, chemicals, software, machine tools and services.

Contributors:
Franco Malerba, Fabio Montobbio, Maureen McKelvey, Luigi Orsenigo, Fabio Pammolli, Fabrizio Cesaroni, Alfonso Gambardella, Walter Garcia-Fontes, Myriam Mariani, Charles Edquist, W. Edward Steinmueller, Jürgen Wengel, Philip Shapira, Bruce S. Tether, J. Stan Metcalfe, Benjamin Corait, Olivier Weinstein, Steven Casper, David Soskice

• Part I Sectoral systems: concepts and issues
  • Sectoral systems of innovation: basic concepts
  • Sectoral dynamics and structural change: stylized facts and "system of innovation" approaches
• Part II Six sectoral systems
  • Pharmaceuticals analyzed through the lens of a sectoral innovation system
  • The chemical sectoral system: firms, markets, institutions and the processes of knowledge creation and diffusion
  • The fixed Internet and mobile telecommunications sectoral system of innovation: equipment production, access provision and content provision
  • The European software sectoral system of innovation
  • Machine tools: the remaking of a traditional sectoral innovation system
  • Services and systems of innovation
• Part III Sectoral systems and national systems; international performance and public policy
  • National institutional frameworks, institutional complementarities and sectoral systems of innovation
  • Sectoral systems of innovation and varieties of capitalism: explaining the development of high-technology entrepreneurship in Europe
  • The international performance of European sectoral systems
  • Sectoral systems: implications for European innovation policy
• Part IV Conclusion
  • Summing-up and conclusions