The role of firms in the national system of innovation (NSI) framework: Examples from Hong Kong

Summary

Since its introduction in 1987, the National System of Innovation (NSI) approach to understanding innovation performance has become well established in economics and policymaking within the OECD. This research asks whether the framework is applicable in Hong Kong an economy that has recently staked its economic future on science and technology. It focuses on the main actors in the NSI framework —firms — and examines how their internal functioning compares with that propagated in the NSI literature. Based on in-depth interviews with four small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong, the research identifies a number of business traits or characteristics relating to innovative activity. The findings question the NSI framework’s universalizing tendency and suggest that the concept cannot be unproblematically applied to a small, developing economy such as Hong Kong which demonstrates conditions markedly different, in a qualitative fashion, from those in advanced industrialized countries, from where the concept arose.

Key Words:

• National System of Innovation (NSI)
• Hong Kong science & I technology policy
• Hong Kong innovation activity
• small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
• NSI framework variation