Members of the InSySPo research group took partin in a event organised by a collaboration of the universities of Leiden, Campinas and Stellenbosch, by means of their departments of science policy, respectively (CWTS – Centre for Science and Technology Studies, DPCT – Deparment of Science and Technology Policy; and CREST – Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology). The event was a series of talks and interactive debates on the possible uses and applications of Big data analytics and AI for science and technology indicators.
Researchers of all groups debated the subject and agreed on a common ground for future collaborations between the institutions.
Objectives for this joint meeting were:
1) Discuss options for (further) alignment of our future R&D programs, ambitions, engage in peer learning opportunities, and share resources and expertise;
2) Take next steps towards further cooperation, through a series of joint research projects and building of shared infrastructures, aimed at establishing a viable and sustainable South-South collaborative program with a noticeable impact on user communities in South Africa and Brazil, as well as other countries in Africa and Latin America.
Download the official Programme hosted from April 17th to 19th by clicking here.
WEBINAR: Contributions and Challenges from Latin America and The Caribbean
Save the date: March 22nd, 12:00-14:00 GMT-3 (Argentina), 16:00-18:00 CET
In order to advance responsible evaluation of research and open science, and to promote more transparent and high-quality decision-making, debates are being generated with the purpose of changing the landscape of open research information and transforming existing restrictive practices. For example, universities such as Antioquia, Sorbonne, and Leiden are embracing open, free, and participatory tools.
Given the proliferation of open scientific information infrastructures (such as LA Referencia, AmeliCA, Redalyc, SciELO, Latindex, Open Science Lens, and OpenAlex, among others), it seems like an opportune moment to expand dialogues and join efforts to enhance access, transparency, and diversity of scientific information available to universities and research centers, as well as to strengthen the transparency and contextualization of research evaluation processes.
In this scenario and considering your expertise, we would like to invite you to participate in a dialogue space where we are interested in hearing your opinions on the potentialities and difficulties in the use of open infrastructures, as well as the possibilities for organizing open data to facilitate its availability and shared use.
Preliminary Program
Coordination: Ismael Ràfols, CWTS, University of Leiden, UNESCO Chair on Diversity and Inclusion in Global Science.
12:00-12:10pm GMT-3 (Argentina)Welcome Remarks by the UNESCO Chair of CWTS, University of Leiden, and CLACSO.
12:10-12:50 GMT-3Institutional Experiences in the Use of Indicators in Science and Technology: Opportunities and Challenges. Speakers:
Cécile Arènes and Amélie Church, Sorbonne University, Paris.
Gabriel Vélez Cuartas, COLAV Coordinator, University of Antioquia, Medellín.
André Brasil, CWTS, UNESCO Chair, University of Leiden.
Bernardo Rondelli, Siris Academic Foundation.
Ignasi Labastida, Director of the Office of Knowledge Dissemination, University of Barcelona.
Fernanda Beigel, Director of the OLIVA Project, CECIC, University of Cuyo, Mendoza.
Rodolfo Barrere, Coordinator of RICYT.
12:50-13:30pm GMT-3Open Scientific Information as a Global Public Good: Contributions and Plans of Infrastructures in Latin America and the Caribbean. Speakers:
Ana María Cetto, Founder of Latindex, President of UNESCO’s World Open Science Steering Committee.
Rodrigo Costas, CWTS, UNESCO Chair, University of Leiden & University of Campinas.
Lautaro Matas, Executive and Technical Secretary of LA Referencia.
Arianna Becerril, Executive Director of Redalyc.
Abel Packer (to be confirmed), Coordinator of the SciELO Program.
13:30-13:55pm GMT-3Round of exchanges and questions.
13:55-14:00pm GMT-3Closing Remarks by Laura Rovelli and Dominique Babini (CLACSO).
Co-organized by UNESCO Chair on Diversity and Inclusion in Global Science, CWTS, Leiden University, Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) Broadcast: CLACSO’s YouTube and Zoom networks.
Decision-making for allocating R&I resources is informed by data, often well-structured to create information, and less frequently well analyzed to result in knowledge. The harvesting of more data from multiple and quite diverse sources, popularly known nowadays as big or large data, has created immense expectations of opportunities and has opened major debates. Undeniably the availability of large amounts of diverse data and of data processing capabilities through modern techniques such as machine learning have opened a vast number of possibilities. Big data use opens new doors to understanding complexity. Big data provide real time information. Such data also offer rare opportunities to study research policy and strategy in new ways.
Still, challenges are aplenty. For our purposes the most obvious is how best to interrogate and meaningfully manage diverse kinds of data to support improved decision-making at both the public and private sectors. The databases continuously storing data will become larger and larger over time and applying big data analytical approaches will be inevitable. Big data are supposed to offer greater statistical power and higher false discovery rate. The introduction of big data in science has been the outcome of the intensification of digital means in research and of the massive use of mathematics and statistics by natural scientists to understand important aspects of the real world.
This Symposium will concentrate on how data and evidence are transforming research policy and strategy. Three keynote speeches by prominent international experts will present new developments (particularly focusing on new data and analytics) in the field of scientometrics and science of science. Two panels will debate the implications of such developments to the elaboration of policy for science and technology.
Place Unicamp (main campus) This is a hybrid event. It will be possible to also participate online. Registrations
08:30 – 09:00
Registration, coffee
09:00-09:30
Welcome – University President, IG Director, InSySPo Chair
09:30-10:30
Keynote 1 (& Q&A) – Cassidy Sugimoto (GATech) “Institutionalization of Inequities in Science”Introduction by Nick Vonortas (GW/UNICAMP)
10:30-11:00
Coffee Break
11:00-12:00
Keynote 2 (& Q&A) – Vincent Lariviere (UdeM) “How bibliometrics can inform science policy: the case of research funding”Introduction by Sergio Salles (UNICAMP)
Keynote 3 (& Q&A) – Rodrigo Costas Comesana (ULeiden) “Making visible the invisible: how novel (and open) scientometric data sources can help us unveil new perspectives on science”Introduction by Sergio Queiroz (UNICAMP)
15:30-17:00
Panel 2 (lessons) – Cassidy Sugitomo (GATech), Vincent Lariviere (UdeM), Sergio Salles (UNICAMP), Euclides de Mesquita Neto (FAPESP)
17:00-17:30
Closing: Carlo Pietrobelli (UniRoma3/UM), Nick Vonortas (GW/UNICAMP)
The world is in turbulence caused by several events occurring simultaneously. Among these events, a general mistrust of globalization in the electorates of several democratic (and non) countries, the geopolitical tensions between China and the United States as well as wars between Russia and its neighbours, and COVID-19 loom large. The latter has evolved into a global health crisis that – considering the levels of global socioeconomic integration – is unprecedented in modern history (past 100 years), leading governments to take drastic measures which impact social life but also economy and Global Value Chains (GVC).
The confluence of such crises is expected to lead to a widespread economic turmoil that will hit hard many countries and regions worldwide. Scholars have argued about the surging of a phase of de-globalization in which GVCs are being transformed and restructured. In parallel, accelerating shifts associated with Industry 4.0 are also shaping the reorganization of the global economy.
If so, the effect on systems of innovation will be profound. The double-sided feature of productive structures (global and local) towards innovation generates dense interactions – a pivotal element of competitiveness at the micro, meso and macro-levels. Notwithstanding, prospective trends of disruption represent substantial risks for relationships involving organizations and innovation systems.
Based on this background, there is massive uncertainty in how countries, regions, firms and individuals will respond to multifaceted crises and productive rearrangements, which ones will be more resilient and better capable of adaptation than others, and why that will be the case. Considering the pivotal role played by GVCs in shaping and integrating technological capabilities at the micro, meso and macro-levels worldwide better conceptualizing these conditions becomes key to properly addressing how economic and innovation systems will absorb the associated.
This international conference will address these fundamental questions. In particular, we our topics of interest will cover:
Global Value Chains and local ecosystems of innovation
Global Value Chains and international networks (resilience)
Global Value Chains and technology upgrading
Global Value Chains and regional innovation policy
The obstacles faced by emerging economies in upgrading their technology can stall growth, and the existing challenges are enhanced under COVID-19, geopolitical struggles, and the growing concern around environmental sustainability.
The Challenges of Technology and Economic Catch-up in Emerging Economies synthesizes and interprets existing knowledge on technology upgrading failures, in firm, sector, and macro levels, across different countries and world macroregions.The Elliott School Book Launch Series is proud to present a lecture featuring the author, distinguished speakers, and Dean Alyssa Ayres of the Elliott School. The event will be held in-person and livestreamed simultaneously. Guidelines for virtual and in-person attendance will be included in your registration confirmation.
About the Co-Editors
Nicholas Vonortas is a Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Elliott School and Director of its Institute for International Science and Technology Policy (IISTP). He is also a Leading Research Fellow at the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge in the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow. His interests center around industrial organization, the economics of technological change, technology and innovation policy and strategy, and R&D program evaluation. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from New York University.
Jeon-Dong Lee is a professor in the College of Engineering at Seoul National University and a Special Advisor to the President of Korea on Economy and Science. His research focuses on the use of network economics and the social effects of network technologies. He holds a Ph.D in Science and Telecommunications from Seoul National University.
Keun Lee is a Professor of Economics at Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea, an editor of Research Policy, an associate editor of Industrial and Corporate Change, and a council member of the World Economic Forum, and Vice Chair of National Economic Advisory Council of Korea. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dirk Meissner is a professor and laboratory head in the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Russia. His research interests include science, technology, innovation policy, and commercialization. He holds a PhD from Dresden University Institute of Technology.
Slavo Radosevic is a Professor of Industry and Innovation Studies at University College London. His research focuses on the economics of technological change and innovation studies, as well as growth and structural change through innovation systems and entrepreneurship. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Zagreb.
About the Guest Speakers
Otaviano Canuto is a nonresident senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. His experience includes 15 years as vice president, executive director or senior adviser in institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and has also served as state secretary for international affairs at the ministry of finance at the Government of Brazil. He holds a PhD in economics from University of Campinas in Brazil.
Anwar Aridi is a Private Sector Specialist at the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) unit of the Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice at the World Bank. He specializes in science, technology, and innovation policy issues, private sector development, technology entrepreneurship, and technology transfer. He holds a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Policy from the GWU Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Administration.
About the Dean
Alyssa Ayres is the Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Her work focuses primarily on India’s role in the world and on U.S. relations with South Asia in the larger Indo-Pacific. Before joining the Elliott School, she was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia under the Obama administration. She holds a Ph.D. in South Asian Languages and Literatures from the University of Chicago.
About the Event
This event is free, recorded, and open to the public. Media inquiries and advance questions are accepted at esiaresearch@email.gwu.edu.
We thank the following partners for their support in producing this event:
Autor: Guilherme Cavalcante Silva (InSySPo) / Para a versão em inglês, clique aqui
Passaram-se anos, veio uma pandemia, mas uma coisa não mudou no Brasil: o anseio por empreender. Embora o número de empreendedores estabelecidos no país tenha caído pela metade no país em 2020 (de 16,1%, em 2019, para 8,7% em 2020), o índice de atividades empreendedoras em fase inicial até mesmo aumentou (ligeiramente), subindo de 23,3% para 23,4%, segundo dados do Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). As porcentagens se referem à quantidade da população nacional registrada como empreendedores em fase inicial ou estabelecida.
Quando a intenção de empreender entra em questão, os dados são ainda mais enfáticos. Mais da metade da população brasileira (52,7%) tem intenção de começar um negócio próprio em até três anos, índice que estava em 30% em 2019 – Brasil é um dos líderes globais neste ranking. A pergunta que paira no ar ante esse cenário é: como aproveitar esses números e favorecer ainda mais o empreendedorismo no país? A resposta não é fácil e envolve não apenas ações das esferas governamentais, como também de outras áreas. Uma delas é a universidade, um dos principais elementos do ecossistema de empreendedorismo.
Brasil é um dos líderes em intenção empreendedora no mundo. Na imagem, em preto, países sem dados. De amarelo até vermelho, em suas distintas gradações, os países com menor e maior índice de intenção empreendedora, respectivamente.
Motivado por esse tema, Matheus Campos, pesquisador de pós-doutorado no programa Innovation Systems, Strategies and Policy (InSySPo), da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), fez da relação entre o ambiente da universidade e o desenvolvimento de características empreendedoras o assunto de sua pesquisa doutoral. Recentemente, ele publicou um artigo, em co-autoria com os pesquisadores Gustavo Salati e Ana Carolina Spatti, ambos também da Unicamp, na Brazilian Administration Review, apresentando os resultados de um modelo avaliativo que utilizou para compreender os diferentes modos em que o ambiente universitário no Brasil impacta o desenvolvimento de características empresariais nos alunos, e, consequentemente, o próprio modo em que universidade e empreendedorismo interagem. O artigo é intitulado “Do University Ecosystems Impact Student’s Entrepreneurial Behavior?“.
No artigo, os autores criaram um modelo conceitual de análise e extraíram dados de sete universidades públicas brasileiras (UEA, UFCG, UnB, Unicamp, USP, UTFPR, UFRGS), localizadas nas cinco regiões do país. Os resultados demonstraram o que, de modo geral, os estudos na área já sabiam: as universidades possuem uma influência no desenvolvimento de intenção empreendedora (intenção de abrir um negócio) por parte dos alunos. Porém, o escopo de tal influência é bem menor do que se pensava. “O que nosso estudo demonstrou é que o papel mais importante da universidade, em relação ao empreendedorismo, não é o incentivo para que o aluno abra uma empresa, mas a sua atuação no desenvolvimento de características voltadas ao empreendedorismo”, sublinha Campos. Em outros termos, treinamentos motivacionais, cursos e uma atuação voltada para que o estudante abra empresas no futuro, embora importantes, são menos eficazes do que o preparo voltado para características empreendedoras, como reconhecimento de oportunidades, perseverança e habilidade de pensar em soluções inovadoras. Afinal, um dos achados do estudo foi de que, nas universidades pesquisadas, a intenção empreendedora está muito mais relacionada com as características pessoais dos próprios estudantes do que com ações da universidade nesse sentido.
O estudo se soma a outras pesquisas da área conhecida como “ecossistema do empreendedorismo”, que avalia a atividade empreendedora em sua conexão com diferentes fatores sociais, políticos, econômicos e educacionais, fatores estes que ultrapassam as “quatro” paredes das empresas e seus recursos financeiros e materiais. “Mesmo algo como a intenção de empreender, por parte dos alunos, está direcionada a fatores tão distintos quanto a sua localização geográfica, isto é, se este aluno está na região Norte/Nordeste ou Sul/Sudeste do país, como nosso estudo demonstrou”, aponta Spatti. “Em um o maior nível de capacitação vai estar consequentemente ligado a um maior estímulo para empreender, em outro, com o mesmo nível de capacitação, o estímulo pode não vir por diversos fatores, como maior competitividade, por exemplo”, acrescenta Salati. Além do aspecto geográfico, a disponibilidade de capital humano, financiamento, políticas públicas, acessibilidade de mercado, cultural local e presença das universidades são alguns dos outros pilares do ecossistema de empreendedorismo.
Alguns dos fatores que fazem parte do ecossistema universitário de empreendedorismo. Adaptado de Rothaermel, F. T., Agung, S. D., & Jiang, L. (2007). University entrepreneurship: A taxonomy of the literature. Industrial and Corporate Change, 16(4), 691–791. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtm023
Em relação ao contexto mais específico das universidades, diversos fatores influenciam na decisão dos alunos de empreender. Os resultados do artigo, relacionados às universidades brasileiras, demonstraram que um dos principais é o desenvolvimento de características empreendedoras, que impactam diretamente a mentalidade empreendedora dos estudantes. Por outro lado, fatores como suporte à abertura de negócios constituíram pesos negativos na amostra. “Em rankings globais de intenção empreendedora, estamos [Brasil] sempre no topo. Mas, ao mesmo tempo, paradoxalmente, ainda há uma certa dificuldade cultural no país em relação a empreender e a ter uma relação mais próxima entre empresas e universidades”, reflete Salati. “O que as pesquisas têm mostrado é que se a orientação da universidade for para o preparo para o mercado de trabalho, o estudante seguirá esse rumo. Por outro lado, se lá ele tiver contato com abertura de empresas, patenteamento, a tendência é que siga esse caminho”, conclui Campos. Embora universidades como USP e Unicamp se destaquem na relação universidade-indústria em termos de investimento e patenteamento, o cenário brasileiro, no geral, ainda é de pouco investimento em P&D (cerca de 1% do PIB, porcentagem bastante superior em países desenvolvidos) e pouca participação da iniciativa privada.
A pesquisa é um indicativo de que uma atividade empreendedora mais intensa no contexto das universidades brasileiras pode não vir de um frenesi sobre empreendedorismo no contexto da sala de aula ou da mera reprodução de modelos “certificados” por instituições norte-americanas ou europeias. “Os nossos achados apontam que as universidades brasileiras são muito boas na questão do ensino e oferecimento de aulas, palestras, cursos e workshops sobre empreendedorismo, mas faltam mecanismos de suporte para auxiliar o estudante a efetivamente abrir uma firma. Tudo isso está relacionado a uma cultura mais ampla, tanto dentro como fora da universidade, em relação ao empreendedorismo que amplia um gap entre ensino e empresas”, reflete Campos.
Author: Guilherme Cavalcante Silva / Article in Portuguese available here
Years have passed, a pandemic has come, but one thing has not changed in Brazil: the level of entrepreneurial intention. Even though the number of established entrepreneurs in the country decreased in 2020 (from 16.1% in 2019 to 8.7% in 2020), the rate of early-stage entrepreneurial activity (slightly) increased, rising from 23.3% to 23.4%, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). The data refer to the percentage of the population registered as early-stage or established entrepreneurs.
When we bring the intention to become an entrepreneur to the table, the data become even more emphatic. More than half of the Brazilian population (52.7%) intends to start their own business within three years, a rate that stood at 30% in 2019 – Brazil is one of the global leaders in that particular ranking. Considering that scenario, one question pops up: how to take advantage of these numbers and boast entrepreneurship in the country? The answer is not easy and involves the government sector as well as other areas. One of them is the university sector, one of the major elements of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Brazil is one of the global leaders in entrepreneurial intention. In the map above, in black, countries with no data available. From yellow to red, in their distinct gradations, countries with the lowest and highest entrepreneurial intention indexes, respectively.
Intrigued with the topic, Matheus Campos, a post-doctoral researcher at the Innovation Systems, Strategies and Policy (InSySPo) program at Unicamp dedicated his doctoral research to the study of the relationship between the university environment and the development of entrepreneurial characteristics. Recently, he published an article co-authored with researchers Gustavo Salati and Ana Carolina Spatti (both also from Unicamp) in the Brazilian Administration Review (BAR), presenting the results of an evaluative model used to understand the different ways in which the environment of Brazilian major public universities impacts the development of entrepreneurial characteristics in students. On a deeper level, the article (titled “Do University Ecosystems Impact Student’s Entrepreneurial Behavior?“) investigates the very way in which university and entrepreneurship interact.
The authors created a conceptual model of analysis, and extracted data from seven Brazilian public universities (Amazonas State University, Federal University of Campo Grande, University of Brasilia, University of Campinas, University of São Paulo, Federal University of Technology – Paraná, and Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul). At first, results showed what studies in the field already knew: universities have an influence on the development of entrepreneurial intention (intention to start a business) by students. However, the scope of such influence is much smaller than previously thought. “What our study has shown is that the most important role of the university is not incentivising the student to start a business, but fostering the development of entrepreneurial characteristics“, Campos concluded. In other words, motivational training, courses, and actions focused on the student creating companies in the future, although important, are less effective than an education focused on entrepreneurial characteristics, such as the recognition of opportunities, perseverance, and the ability to offer innovative solutions. After all, one of the findings of the study was that in the universities surveyed, entrepreneurial intention was much more related to the students’ own characteristics than to university actions in that sense.
The study adds to other researches in the “entrepreneurship ecosystem” field, which evaluates entrepreneurial activity in its connection to different social, political, economic, and educational factors – variables that go beyond the “four walls” of companies and their financial and material resources. “Even something like students’ intention to become entrepreneurs is related to things as distinct as their geographical location, i.e. whether this particular student is in the North/Northeast or South/Southeast part of Brazil, as our study has shown,” Spatti points out. “For one student, a higher level of training will consequently generate a greater stimulus to entrepreneurship; for another, with the same level of training, there will be no room for intention to start a business for a myriad of other variables such as higher competitiveness in major cities, for example,” Salati adds. Besides geographical aspects, the availability of human capital, funding, public policies, market accessibility, local culture, and the presence of universities in the region are some of the other pillars of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
In the more specific context of universities, several factors influence students’ decision to become entrepreneurs. As mentioned before, one of them is the development of entrepreneurial characteristics, which directly impact the entrepreneurial mentality of students. On the other hand, factors such as “support for starting a business” resulted in negative weights in the sample. “In global rankings of entrepreneurial intention, we [Brazil] are always at the top. But at the same time, paradoxically, there is still a certain cultural block in the country regarding the relationship between companies and universities, and that affects entrepreneurial outcomes,” Salati reflects. “Research is pretty established in showing that if the orientation of the university is to prepare for the job market, the student will follow that direction. If there are straight contacts with business, start-ups and patenting, their tendency is to follow this path,” Campos concludes. With the exception of institutions such as the University of São Paulo (USP) and University of Campinas (Unicamp) – both stand out in terms of university-industry relationship, private investment, and patenting, the Brazilian scenario is still one of scarce investments in R&D (around 1% of the GDP, a percentage that is much higher in developed countries) and little interactions with private enterprises.
The research is an indication that a more intense entrepreneurial activity in Brazil might not come from a frenzy about entrepreneurship in the universities’ classroom context or from the mere reproduction of “certified models” from North American or European institutions. “Our findings point out that Brazilian universities are very good at teaching and offering classes, lectures, courses and workshops on entrepreneurship, but lack support mechanisms to help students effectively open a firm. All of this is a reflection of a broader culture both inside and outside the university involving entrepreneurship that widens the gap between education and businesses,” Campos reflects.
With the participation of InSySPo researchers, Unicamp’s research lab GEOPI (Laboratory for Studies on the Organization of Research and Innovation) offered an online course on “Foresight & Beyond: prospection, priorization and support to decision making in Science, Technology and Innovation” from July 19 to July 30, 2021. InSySPo’s Co-Principal Investigator Sergio Salles-Filho and Associate Investigator Adriana Bin organized the event, that also counted with courses from Nicholas Vonortas (InSySPo’s Principal Investigator) and Vinicius Muraro (InSysPo collaborator).
A total of 23 students from major public and private organizations in Brazil and Latin America joined the course. During the course, they had the chance to develop proposals for prospection and prioritization of themes such as office of the future, digital health and post-pandemic public education following a practical step-by-step learned in the course.
The 17 different sessions covered the main concepts, definitions, schools, frontiers, challenges, and tools of prospecting and prioritization. The topics were also approached from the viewpoints of policy and innovation design in different countries. A special attention was also given to corporate foresight, data, and opinion-based tools from an economic, multi-criteria, and mixed-methods perspective.
Highly anticipated volume gathers contributions from editors and authors from all around the world on issues such as technological capabilities, green growth, middle-income trap, and innovation policy, just to name a few.
After four years of work, several days of discussion in conferences and workshops, and fruitful debates, the volume “The Challenges of Technology and Economic Catch-Up in Emerging Economies” was finally released on June 2021. The book is published by Oxford University Press and contains 16 chapters split into 4 book sections. The first section deals with “Technology Capability and Growth Performance at the Country Level”. Next, the book moves to the industry level with a section on “Technology Capability Upgrade and Sectoral Catch-Up”, followed by a discussion on green growth and the “Emerging Paradigm on Technology Capability Upgrading”. As for the final section, three chapters discuss “Innovation Policy for Technology Upgrading”.
The book synthesizes and interprets existing knowledge on technology upgrading failures in order to better understand the challenges of technology upgrading in emerging economies. The objective is to bring together diverse evidence on three major dimensions of technology upgrading: paths of technology upgrading, structural changes in the nature of technology upgrading, and the issues of technology transfer and technology upgrading.
The book is edited by InSySPo’s Principal Investigator Prof. NicholasVonortas (GWU/Unicamp), along with Prof. Jeong-Dong Lee (Seoul National University), Prof. Keun Lee (Seoul National University), Prof. Dirk Meissner (Higher School of Economics – NRU), and Prof. Slavo Radosevic (University College London). The volume is available for purchase from Oxford University Press. More information is available here.
If you want a ‘taste’ of the book content, you can watch some of the discussions that took place in our “Technology Upgrading and Economic Catch-Up” workshop series on Youtube, based in the book chapters. Full playlist available below:
The event on April 22 concluded a journey that brought together around 400 participants from 56 countries
Six months after the first edition on the beginning of November 2020, the workshop series on “Technology Upgrading and Economic Catch-Up” has come to an end, leaving behind many interesting discussions that reached almost 400 participants from 56 countries. During its run, the series went from micro to macroeconomics, and vice-versa, dealing with issues such as innovation policy, green growth, capability building, global value chains and so on.
The theme of the first edition of the workshop series was “Technology capabilities and their impact on growth and catching up”. The workshop explored the role of technological capabilities and their impact on growth and economic catching up, with a focus on emerging economies. Jan Fagerberg (University of Oslo), Randolph Bruno (University College London), Vitaliy Roud (Higher School of Economics, National Research University), JD Lee, and Keun Lee (Seoul National University) were some of the speakers. Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira (Tsinghua University) offered some special remarks. You can watch the event in full below:
For the second edition, we discussed “Technology Capability Upgrade and Sectoral Catch-Up”. The workshop explored the reasons for the uncertainty behind technology upgrading processes, where outcomes are dependent on a variety of mutually interrelated factors whose consequences are so unpredictable. Paulo Zawislak (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), Paulo Figueiredo (Getulio Vargas Foundation), Jae Yong Choung (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) were some of the speakers. Anwar Aridi (World Bank) provided special remarks. You can watch the event in full below:
The third edition of the workshop series went green by discussing “Emerging paradigm on technology capability upgrading: embracing green, inclusive and social sustainability concerns”. The workshop explored new developments in technology through the increasing application of artificial intelligence, the demise of the fossil-fuel-based growth regime, plus increasing concerns with equity and inclusiveness of technology. It also evaluated new measures of economic growth that go beyond GDP measures to include sustainable development and green growth. Tilman Altenburg (German Development Institute), Maria Savona (Sussex University), and Gabriela Dutrénit (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana) were some of the speakers. Otaviano Canuto (Policy Center for the New South) provided some comments on the presentations. You can watch the event in full below:
Innovation Policy for Technology Upgrading was the theme of the fourth edition of the workshop series. It explored different facets of innovation policies for technology upgrading in the context of changing policy philosophies evolving from import substitution earlier on and the Washington consensus policies more recently to the pandemic/post-pandemic context of today. The speakers were Xudong Gao (Tsinghua University), Carlo Pietrobelli (University Roma Trè), and Yevgeny Kuznetsov (Migration Policy Institute), while Fuad Hasanov and Reda Cherif (International Monetary Fund) acted as external discussants. You can watch the event in full below:
Finally, the final edition brought together the editors of the upcoming Oxford University Press volume that inspired the organization of the series: “The Challenges of Technology Upgrading and Economic Catch-Up in Emerging Economies” to wrap up the discussions and provide some comments on future research agenda. They are Jeong-Dong Lee (Seoul National University), Keun Lee (Seoul National University), Dirk Meissner (Higher School of Economics – NRU), Slavo Radosevic (University College London), and NicholasVonortas (George Washington University/University of Campinas). Sergio Salles-Filho (University of Campinas), Yongsuk Jang (Science and Technology Policy Institute, Korea), and Alfred Watkins (Global Solutions Summit) provided special remarks. You can watch the event in full below:
The volume is soon to be released by Oxford University Press (June 2021). You can find more information here. Please check out our International Events section for more details on past and forthcoming events. You can also subscribe to our Newsletter to receive up-to-date information about our and our partners’ research.
