The importance of academy-industry interaction for the Brazilian immature innovation system: evidences from a comprehensive data base

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1. Introduction

The concept of national systems of innovation (Freeman, 1988; Nelson, 1993) is the starting point the present investigation. It is a complex institutional setting that characterizes modern capitalist economies, involving a diversity of actors – firms with and without R&D departments, universities, research institutes, government, financial agencies, legal framework – and a division of labor among them. Within such institutional setting, the relationships required to exchange and combine knowledge and experience between the actors are a crucial factor differentiating developed and non-developed NSIs (Lundvall, 2003). Among them, those between firms, universities and research institutes stand out as they work in a complementary way, bringing benefits to both academy and industry (Mowery and Sampat, 2005). From the perspective of most developed industrial countries, they are a key and dynamic component of the NSIs, especially in the form of two-way links (Narin, 1997; Pavitt, 1991; Rosenberg, 1990). They are also reported as complex and multifarious in the more advanced form – the US case (Klevorick et al, 1995; Cohen et al, 2002).

Those studies also show that the channels through which knowledge flows between firms and public research organizations (PRO) matter, as do the relationships between the channels used and the benefits obtained. However, they have strong historical roots, with very specific patterns of change over time and space, and are difficult to construct (Rosenberg, 1982; Mokyr, 1990). On the one hand, they thrive in academic environments that value the so-called “entrepreneurial role” of the universities beyond the traditional focus on higher education, production of scientific knowledge, and provi...

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...he creation of scientific institutions “ahead of demand”. This has been the case of information and communication technologies, computer sciences, and computer engineering.

On the other hand, despite recent advances, Brazil still presents a lagging position in respect to its national system of innovation (NSI). Differently from South Korea, the Brazilian path is slow and shows a relatively small tradeoff between scientific and technological production, as Ribeiro et al (2009) demonstrate. The scientific side of the system has improved considerably but the mismatch with production technology is representative of a less-developed national socioeconomic formation. Furthermore, it is understood that a NSI constitutes a precondition for overcoming underdevelopment, as it produces solutions to problems faced by economy and society (Suzigan, Rapini and Albuquerque (2009).

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