Advanced countries have shown an increasing convergence in their economic performance and technological intensity, with a relative decline of the position of the United States and the emergence of the European and Japanese economies. The Technological Specialization of Advanced Countries moves beyond aggregate patterns and examines the sectoral structure of technological activities, the process of specialization, and the impact on national performance. Indicators of technology and of scientific activity are examined together with other economic and R & D data, providing a wealth of empirical evidence on the activities, and areas of strength and weakness of individual countries. The amount of disaggregated data provided, and the assessment offered on the state of art in science and technology indicators, make The Technological Specialization of Advanced Countries an important reference work. A description of the fields of national effort is provided and a special study is devoted to the fields of greater innovative dynamism where patenting has grown most rapidly. Over time, countries have concentrated their technological efforts in the fields of their greater strength, under the pressure of increasing international competition and the proprietary nature of know how. Conversely, in science there has generally been a decrease in the degree of specialization, with countries entering new fields of research, taking advantage of the open flow of scientific knowledge. For science and technology policy, the findings of The Technological Specialization of Advanced Countries suggest that national efforts should be combined with the growing international integration. The aims of maintaining established areas of strength and of developing new specializations in emerging fields should be balanced, and a more selective policy at the sectoral level is suggested.

Regional growth in the European Union hinges to a large extent on smart specialization, a new and exciting theme in economic innovation studies. Advances in the Theory and Practice of Smart Specialization illuminates problems that have stifled the implementation of smart specialization policies, such as unique regional constraints and the inter-dependent demands of economic growth and commercial development. Forward-looking and pragmatic, it provides guidance for developing smart specialization strategies both to those involved in European affairs and others grappling with regional innovation and economic development worldwide. - Emphasizes specific contexts for smart specialization, its international approach and institutional preconditions - Examines comparable initiatives worldwide - Explains how to implement smart specialization policies given different development levels of regions and countries

Examines the role of international Ricardian specialization in economic development processes. Laursen (Copenhagen Business School) considers whether countries converge or diverge in terms of specialization patterns over time; if the role of technology can explain the direction of national trade specialization; and the implications of international specialization patterns and their changes for economic growth. Appreciative theories, neo-classical theories, post-Keynesian approaches, and evolutionary approaches are discussed in relation to each of the three issues. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

This volume consitutes a summary of several years' multi-disciplinary research by a group of Swedish researchers. The project 'Sweden's Technological Systems and Future Development Potential' was initiated by the Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development (NUTEK) and has been carried out at the Department of Industrial Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, the Research Policy Institute at the University of Lund, the Industrial Institute for Economic and Social Research (lUI) in Stockholm, and the Department of Industrial Economics and Management at the Royal Insitute of Technology, Stockholm, under the direction of Bo Carlsson, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. The project group decided early on to focus fIrst on the technological system for factory automation - a relatively mature system of great importance to Swedish industry and in which Sweden has reached a leading position internationally - and then to shift the attention to other systems in various stages of development and with varying Swedish strength. The work on factory automation resulted in numerous papers and publications, summarized in a volume published in 1995 (Technological Systems and Economic Performance: The Case of Factory Automation, ed. Bo Carlsson. Dordrecht.

The process of capability development is central to industrialization, but the current literature focuses on the advanced developing countries. This book, based on a World Bank sponsored study of enterprise development in Ghana, is the first to examine in detail how firms in least developed countries in Africa acquire technological capabilities. It analyses why Ghanaian firms are generally relatively uncompetitive, why some firms are better than others, and how the structural adjustment is affecting manufacturing development.

Marcela Miozzo is Reader in Innovation Studies at Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, UK. Her teaching and research activities are the innovation and the internationalization of services; technological and organisational changes in the construction sector; and technological capabilities of firms in Latin America. Vivien Walsh is Professor of Innovation Management at Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, UK. Her teaching and research activities are the areas of globalization; networks and collaboration in the innovation process.

Although most Latin American and Caribbean countries have greatly increased their exports during the early 1990s, the goal of moving towards higher value added products in their export structure is proving as elusive as during the import substitution industrialization period. This paper brings together ideas about and indicators of the region's capacity to compete in advanced industries or products in the international market-place. It develops an index of the technological specialization in the region's exports to the most sophisticated markets (i.e., the OECD countries) and accounts for variations in specialization on the basis of the performance of the national systems of innovation and the dynamics of investment in innovation. The paper is divided into five sections. After the introduction, it presents the definition and the database for calculating the technological specialization index. The third section examines long-run trends in the capacity of the region to adapt to international competition, particularly in comparison with the performance of the most developed countries (the Group of Seven), the Asian tigers (Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, China), the potential Asian tigers (China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand) and the newly industrialized European countries (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Turkey). Data for specific Latin American and Caribbean countries are also presented. The fourth section looks into the determinants of the region's international performance in high-technology products, particularly investment in innovation by Governments and firms. These determinants are divided into those related to the functioning of national systems of innovation in the region (public policy, technological infrastructure, human capital formation, and the internal articulation of the system) and those related to investment in innovation (the aggregate expenditure on research and development (R & D) and its structure, and human resources and enterprise investment in R & D). The paper concludes by addressing policy issues that impact on the region's performance with respect to investment in innovation. In particular, it goes beyond the usual technology policy instruments and puts forward ideas regarding ways to tackle problems related to the lack of Schumpeterian entrepreneurs, asymmetrical information and the incentive system in the region's national systems of innovation.