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The purpose of this paper is to examine evolutionary processes of sectoral systems of innovation in China's catch‐up situation.

History event analysis method is used. The data that inform this paper come primarily from interviews carried out as a part of case studies of the innovations of China's car industry as well as public sources.

Market catch‐up of China's self‐owned brand cars expanded from low to high end market segment. Changes of the five building blocks of innovation system of China's car industry have driven the market catch‐up since the 1980s. The five building blocks are: market demand, industrial technology and knowledge base, institutional setting, industrial structure, firms' competences and strategy. China's car industry evolved through exploitation and exploration, which were affected by the five building blocks. The exploitation and exploration shaped the catch‐up way of China's car industry: from production localization to design localization and self‐owned brands. Exploration of the self‐owned brand group built on exploitation of the joint‐venture group.

The findings are based on a single industry. Studies on more industries are needed to generalize the research results.

Increased understanding of how sectoral systems of innovation evolve will give managers and policy makers in the developing countries like China improved opportunities to formulate policies and management practices that can cultivate innovation capabilities in catch‐up.

The paper contributes to the research stream on sectoral systems of innovation by understanding building blocks and evolutionary processes at the base of change and growth in the catch‐up situation.

The purpose of this paper is to model the relationship between “innovation systems” players and markets to indicate the “innovation functions” behavior during the petrochemical technology life cycle.

In a general classification, innovation systems are divided into four categories: technical, sectoral, regional and national. If two approaches are hybrid, their benefits would be combined. According to the sectoral structure of the governance model in Iran, in many sectors, such as petrochemical technology, the combination of one another with a sectoral approach is essential. Hence, this paper has introduced a new hybrid approach, called a techno-sectoral innovation system, and has used system dynamics as a methodology and a petrochemical industry as a case study.

The results predict the functions state of the innovation system and detect activation of innovation motors in each stage of innovation life cycle. Validation is investigated using Monte Carlo simulation that shows the error of the indices is acceptable. It can be concluded that the model is relatively in a development state and the motor of entrepreneurship functions.

This case-based model can help other researchers, as a generic model. It could be customized with the input parameters and relational flows of new cases, and functions (F1-F7) can show the result of each scenario made by the innovation analyst and the policymaker.

To answer the questions: what roles windows of opportunity act in the catchup process of latecomers, what strategies latecomer enterprises should adopt to size windows of opportunity to catch-up with incumbents even going beyond?

This paper studies the catch-up history of the Chinese mobile phone industry and proposes a sectoral innovation system under scenario of technology paradigm shifts. Then a history-friendly simulation model and counterfactual analysis are conducted to learn how different windows of opportunity and catch-up strategies influence the catch-up performance of latecomers.

Results show latecomers can catch up with technology ability by utilizing technology window and path-creating strategy. However, catching up with the market is not guaranteed. Demand window can help latecomers to catch up with market as it increases their survival rates, different sized windows benefit different strategies. However, it also enlarges incumbents' scale effect. Without technology window technology catch up is not guaranteed. Two windows have combination effects. Demand window affects the “degree” of change in survival rates, while the technology window affects the “speed” of change. Demand window provides security; technology window provides the possibility of a breakthrough for technology ability.

The findings of this paper provide theoretical guidance for latecomer enterprises to choose appropriate catch-up strategies to seize different opportunity windows.

This paper emphasizes the abrupt change of industrial innovation system caused by technology paradigm shifts, which makes up for the shortcomings of previous researches on industrial innovation system which either studied the influence of static factors or based on the influence of continuous changes.

This conceptual paper articulates an analytical framework, which collectively borrows from the concepts of Sectoral, National and Technological Innovation Systems, for examining the prospects for the emergence of renewable energy industries in a given country. In order to examine the dynamics within the national energy system under consideration, a list of system functions has also been compiled from the literature. It is believed that the adoption of such a functions approach has the potential to enhance our understanding of the process of, and drivers behind, the emergence and transformation of energy innovation systems. Towards the end of this paper, other theoretical concepts are acknowledged as also relevant for investigating the potential establishment of renewable energy industries. While every theoretical approach has its strengths and weaknesses, an effort has been made in this paper to justify the adoption of a suitable framework that is based on the systems of innovation approach.

This study aims to scrutiny the performance of the petrochemical sector and the technological innovation life cycle. Also, the stage of the innovation life cycle for the sector is specified. Then, scenarios are designed to improve the speed of the sector development. For this reason, for synchronizing the petrochemical sector, this study tries to combine two innovation systems (technological and sectoral systems) called “techno-sectoral innovation system” under an integrated model. Furthermore, the “functions and driving motors” are expanded in the proposed model.

By combining two concepts of the innovation systems, the complexity of the system rises to some extent. Also, to model causal relationships in the sector and non-linear connections between variables, system dynamics approach is applied. During this phase, the flow diagram of the model is translated to a simulation programme using Vensim software. Model validation is investigated using a comparison of the actual with simulated values.

The results predict the functions state of the innovation system and detect activation of innovation motors in each stage of the innovation life cycle. Validation shows the acceptable error of the indices. It can be concluded that the sector is relatively in the development state. Four scenarios have been proposed for representing policies that sector uses to motivate its companies. The best scenario is the fourth one that divides resources with different weightings among companies to accelerate switching time between sector’s motors. Finally, the fourth scenario can improve the performance of the petrochemical.

The hybrid approach shows researchers that performance of an industry can be improved based on sectoral and technological at the same time. Thus, this case-based model can contribute to other researchers, as a base model. Also, it could be customized with parameters and the relationship between players and functions. Furthermore, a dynamic switch among the motors has been presented in the model.

This paper aims to identify the factors that are constraining technological innovation to support the development of coalbed methane in China.

The analysis applies ideas relating to national and sector systems of innovation to explain why China’s strategies to support research and technological innovation have failed to stimulate the desired progress in coalbed methane production. It also provides a counter-example of the USA that implemented a number of measures in the 1970s that proved very effective.

The deficiencies of China’s research and development strategies in support of coalbed methane development reflect the national and sectoral systems of innovation. They are exacerbated by the structure of the national oil and gas industry. Key constraints include the excessively top-down management of the national R&D agenda, insufficient support for basic research, limited collaboration networks between companies, research institutes and universities and weak mechanisms for diffusion of knowledge. The success of the USA was based on entirely different systems for innovation and in quite a different industrial setting.

The originality of this analysis lies in placing the challenges facing research and innovation for China’s coalbed methane development in the context of the national and sectoral systems for innovation and comparing with the approach and success of the USA.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse differences in the drivers of firm innovation performance across sectors. The literature often makes the assumption that firms in different sectors differ in their propensity to innovate but not in the drivers of innovation. The authors empirically assess whether this assumption is accurate through a series of econometric estimations and tests.

The data used are derived from the Irish Community Innovation Survey 2004-2006. A series of multivariate probit models are estimated and the resulting coefficients are tested for parameter stability across sectors using likelihood ratio tests.

The results indicate that there is a strong degree of heterogeneity in the drivers of innovation across sectors. The determinants of process, organisational, new to firm and new to market innovation varies across sectors suggesting that the pooling of sectors in an innovation production function may lead to biased inferences.

The implications of the results are that innovation policies targeted at stimulating innovation need to be tailored to particular industries. One size fits all policies would seem inappropriate given the large degree of heterogeneity observed across the drivers of innovation in different sectors.

The value of this paper is that it provides an empirical test as to whether it is suitable to group sectoral data when estimating innovation production functions. Most papers simply include sectoral dummies, implying that only the propensity to innovate differs across sectors and that the slope of the coefficient estimates are in fact consistent across sectors.

The purpose of this paper is to explore, through a case study, and using Pawson and Tilley's notion of context-mechanism-outcome configurations, how a sectoral innovation system (SIS) for health technologies has developed.

The case study data were collected as part of a large study that looked at technology innovation and adoption in the UK's National Health Service and were collected using an interpretive case study methodology. Primary data came from interviews and secondary data from published sources, including articles authored by members of the innovation team.

The paper identifies three specific configurations of context, mechanism and outcome that were important in the case and discusses how these contribute to a broader understanding of a healthcare services SIS.

Research conducted through a single case study is open to the criticism that its findings are not generalisable but it has offered an economical way of gaining a deep description of a situation and an understanding of the contextual factors affecting a phenomenon. The paper presents a refined model for understanding SISs that though primarily rooted within the healthcare care sector has potential for application in other sectors, especially those that encompass a significant public-sector component.

The paper's findings and conclusions have relevance to healthcare service innovation policy development. The findings will also be useful to professionals responsible for innovation projects and their support within the sector.

The paper makes an important contribution to the understanding of a SIS for healthcare services as well as refining a general model of SISs.

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the knowledge flow between companies and universities based on national and sectoral systems of innovation perspective. It is argued here that high-tech sectors can describe a knowledge flow mainly based on scientific research, while sectors with lower technological impact may establish relations based on technical needs.

A case study research was conducted in the horticulture and aerospace sectors in Brazil. Thirteen interviews were performed with chief executive officer’s and academic researchers from both fields.

Results demonstrated differences in technology development and knowledge infrastructure when comparing both sectors, reflecting the impacts of national and sectoral systems of innovation. The horticulture sector presented technological limitations due to restricted eating habits, logistics, knowledge development at universities and difficulties on the establishment of partnerships between local companies and Embrapa, the main public research centre. Such restrictions limit academic activities while companies look for research partnerships abroad. Space industry also has limited technological development due to international embargoes and lack of research alignment between companies and universities. Companies end up developing research activities internally, usually funded by governmental tenders.

The horticulture sector has limitations, as it is not the main agriculture area in science and technology applications. Future studies may analyse areas like soy beans, sugar cane and coffee, which may present differences specially regarding sectoral systems of innovation.

The finding of this paper may influence the review of sectoral innovation policies, improving the development of local research activities which may be a source of valuable knowledge to companies. It also demonstrates the importance of the knowledge flow to improve sector’s technology level.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the status quo of China's innovation systems and contribute to the development of effective innovation policies.

The construct of this paper is based on a comprehensive case study in China's transportation sector. Detailed discussions and analyses follow to give implications in policy making.

Sectoral innovation capability can be enhanced in a learning environment that balances domestic innovation and international technology transfer. Government should strategically leverage various resources for innovation.

Through the analysis of case study, a conceptual framework to support sectoral innovation is proposed. The research gives insight on how to improve and prepare the conditions for future innovation.