Michael Gastrow

In the era of open innovation, the capability to conduct collaborative research and development has become a key indicator of absorptive capacity and innovation competitiveness. However, the literature addressing open innovation has a focus on developed economies. New evidence from the South African National R&D Survey, together with supplementary data, make it possible to gain a greater understanding of the structure of open innovation in nanotechnology, biotechnology and open source software in the South African context. Findings from a comparative analysis include: the identification of collaboration-intensive R&D networks whose structures are influenced by the characteristics of each technological platform; linkages between localized innovation networks and global innovation networks; and distinct patterns of expenditure, sectoral distribution and geographical location characterizing each of these technologies. The paper concludes with some suggestions for policy applications fo...

Multinational enterprises can play an important role in increasing the global competitiveness of cities through knowledge spillovers. The extent of spillovers depends on firm strategies, created assets and other local attributes. The paper focuses on six key sectors that account for a large share of the Cape Town metropolitan economy in South Africa. Forty -four lead firms were interviewed to assesses knowledge flows, capabilities of firms and other actors, and reliance on local assets. Firms had relatively strong absorptive capacities in all sectors, although they had to cope with human capital constraints. Inadequate infrastructure and city governance of the economy posed additional problems. Nonetheless, there was evidence of localised knowledge spillovers which differed across sectors. The combination of opportunities for "smart specialisation" as focus for an economic strategy, requisite assets, and the in-principle option to leverage political capital and invest the ...

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, roughly 800 million people among the world's poorest live in lowincome countries (LICs). There is consensus that, in a global economy, an improvement of their condition will depend increasingly on innovation and on the power of ...

ABSTRACT In seeking to understand the linkages between skill development and the formation of global innovation networks (GINs), we develop an analytical framework that incorporates concepts of dynamic upgrading with the distinction between centripetal and centrifugal forces that act to expand or contract these networks. Using a multiple case-study analysis methodology, we find that on the whole innovation follows skills, which act as a centrifugal force distributing innovation around the globe. Our cases also reveal that this general pattern overlays many other influential factors at the macro, meso, and micro levels, including factors related to skill availability, market characteristics, sectoral characteristics, policy contexts, and micro-level determinants. While these factors are influential, in principle, in shaping GINs, within each individual network, there is a unique and complex interaction between particular sets of forces.

... firms with local technologies declined from 25.8 per cent to only 10 per cent (Lorentzen and Barnes, 2004). Between 1997 and 2008, investments by assemblers amounted to ZAR31.2bn of which eight per cent was devoted to R&D and engineering (Gastrow and Gordon, 2010). ...