Linking knowledge innovation and development in South Africa: national policies and regional variances

Abstract

The relationship between knowledge and development has been firmly established by scholars in the global literature. From concepts such as the knowledge economy, knowledge capitalism and developmental universities, there is a close knitting between national or regional development policy and the socio-economic transformation of societies across the globe (Burton-Jones 1999; Pinheiro et al. 2012). Of importance to this link in the role of knowledge for innovation towards national, regional and local development is policy and effective governance at national and regional levels (Isaksen et al. 2018;Martinez-Vazquez & Vaillancourt 2008). While the role of national policy as a driver has been adequately acknowledged and emphasised in the national innovation systems literature (Feldman & Choi 2015;Lundvall 2007), the critical aspects of governance have not been adequately engaged with. e systems approach to a greater extent focuses on the social systems in which the institutions interact and are governed. Another aspect of the systems approach is its dynamic nature as a result of "which the elements either reinforce each other in promoting processes of learning and innovation or, conversely, combine into constellations blocking such processes" (Lundvall 1992:2). e social system aspect of the approach, however, has shown that innovation is better elected at the regional level, hence the notion of regional innovation systems.